Criminology High
by TheLampPostStation
Summary: Greg had a plan.This plan brought six 14-year-olds from their happy-go-lucky high-school lifestyles into the world of Criminology and the FBI.Bones squad and NCIS team up to train these teenagers into their best team ever. *T for descriptive crime scenes*
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: The authors of this story do not own anything from Bones or NCIS. The only thing we own is the plot and extra names.

P.S. I wish we did. (This would be an awesome birthday present if anyone wants to get it for us! ;0)

"And what is your reasoning on this point?" Asked the man, standing up from behind his desk, a short man in front of him.

"Well sir, I have discovered that our current main forensics squad in Phoenix will be… retired in 4 years time. If you set to work now, we can have a special task force and agents assembled at that time. If we train them under the squad we have right now, by 2014, if my calculations are correct, they will be the best squad we've ever had!"

"Were talking about fourteen year olds, Greg, fourteen!"

"Yes sir, I know, but right now, they're the best chance we've got." With that, Agent Gregory Bruick tossed six profiles on his boss' desk and trudged out of the room.

Director Cullen held the profiles in his hand_. Somers, Di Croce, Hamberlin, Easton, Parker, and Harris; freshman at Highland and Desert Ridge High. Passing all classes and have G.P.A.s of over 4.0. Hmmm. Maybe he is not crazy after all. These kids are geniuses!_ He thought as he placed down the six files. "Call Agent Gregory in here, would you please?" He said into the speaker button on his desk.


	2. Chapter 1: Pulled out

A man entered the office of Highland High. He was wearing a tuxedo and had a gun holstered at his side. "I need to know where Kyrah Di Croce, Caitlin Somers, and Megan Hamberlin are." The woman at the front desk looked up, rolled her eyes, and typed something on the computer."Megan and Kyrah are in Math, go straight down the walk into the first door, turn left in the main hallway, take another left and the room is 318. Caitlin is in PE so she will be just outside." He thanked her and walked away.

Kyrah's POV

I was sitting in class taking notes on who knows what, when the familiar click of the door opening and closing sounded. "I need to speak with two of your students." A man's voice said. As if on reflex, every hand in the classroom went up, almost begging to be released from the doom of Mrs. Hampeinz, except for mine and Megan's. As I looked up, every hand in the class went down. Curious, I turned to look at the mystery man standing at the door.

He was wearing a tuxedo and holding a silver badge that looked like he had spit shined it before he walked through the door. "Di Croce and Hamberlin, come with me." He said, looking straight at me. This can't be good.

"What's going on?" Megan asked as soon as the door closed, blocking the chance of any unwanted eavesdroppers into our conversation. "Just follow me and I'll explain on the way there." He replied walking toward the heavy metal doors to the back were PE was going on. The boys were playing basketball while the girls were running the track. We walked up to Mrs. Smith who was standing on the blacktop. "Mrs. Smith?" He asked in the same monotone voice he used on Mrs. Hampeinz."I need to talk with one of your students." She looked at him and sighed. "Which one, I have forty." "Caitlin Somers." He answered. She turned back to her class and blew a whistle. "SOMERS!" She screamed, for her seventh hour class, she sure had a strong voice.

A girl from across the field stopped running and turned her head. "Yes?" She asked. "Someone is here for you." Smtih replied and Caitlin stared to walk across the empty field. Mrs. Smith turned around to see the man holding a badge that read F.B.I. She quickly spun around and screamed "SPRINT SOMERS!" Caitlin quickened her pace and was in front of us in no time at all without a loss of breath. I swear I heard the man next to me whisper "Now that's a field agent."

We followed him to a black SUV where there were a few chairs bolted to the floor. "What the potato is going on here?" Caitlin screeched as the doors locked behind us, trapping us in. "Sorry for the lack of technological gadgets, we left that in the other truck." I turned to look at Caitlin, waiting for her witty comment. "Well you better go get that fancy little truck because I am missing SpongeBob Square pants for this." She commented, just on time. She has always been very forward.

I looked to the man to see him rolling his eyes."We don't have time for this." He said "right now it's time for introductions." He said. "We already know each other." I interrupted him. "Yeah, shouldn't that be on our profiles?" Caitlin questioned, that's a good point. "How do you know about the profiles?" Asked the man. "You really think that a drycleaner wearing a tuxedo and a gun would take us out of school?" I laughed; he just mumbled and turned his back to us yelling at the man driving to go faster.

I didn't know how dark it was in the back of a windowless SUV until they opened the back doors. The afternoon sun shone in my eyes and I grimaced, taking in my surroundings. It looked like a pretty normal area; well, except for the giant letters reading F.B.I. in black on the tan building standing in front of us. I tried to stay calm but I couldn't hold in the excited squeal that left me. _Ducky works here!!! _I thought as another squeal left me. I fixed my composure and turned to the obvious agent. "What are we doing here?" Megan, Caitlin, and I asked at the same time. The man that was driving handed us heavy, thick manila folders and headed towards the automatic doors of the Phoenix, F.B.I. Headquarters building.

A/N: Please review! Reviewers will get a free virtual potato via imagination! Anonymous reviews accepted!!


	3. Chapter 2: Needing more

We were led into an empty conference room and told to sit down. "In this folder you will find the basics of a case we need you to solve… Once you have to answer, press the button on the wall and I will come check your progress, any questions? Good." The agent said without giving us any time to ask a question. I turned to Caitlin to see her face buried in the file."Male, late teens early twenties, Caucasian, blunt force trauma to the left side of the skull. This case is from two years ago, why do they want us to find out who murdered him?"

"How do you know the case is two years old?" Megan asked. Caitlin rolled her eyes and said "Because in the picture, there are big orange letters on the bottom right hand corner that says October 24, 2009!" Caitlin said as if she was talking to a 3 year old. I stifled a giggle and opened my folder.

Victim: David Nguyen

Suspects: Christopher Kennely- Friend

Anthony Nguyen- Brother

Payton Marks- Girlfriend

Shawn Darmin- Friend

Objection: Collect all the information you can and try to think of it as a logical puzzle. Put the pieces together and if you put them in the correct spaces, they will show you the answer.

Good Luck,

Tony

"Isn't Tony with the NCIS?" I asked. "We're in the F.B.I. Headquarters." "It doesn't matter. On the case, we need to figure out how each suspect was associated with the victim." Megan always got strait to the point. "It says right-"Caitlin started. "I know, what I meant was where was each person at David's TOD?" Megan interrupted.

"Here is Anthony's alibi, he was working at Mc Donald's, and his punch card proves it." I stated. "So unless he was able to sneak past the cameras and other workers, we can cross him off the list." Caitlin concluded. "I think we need more to look at." I said. Megan and Caitlin agreed and we all headed over to 'the Button'.

"Are you guys done already; that must be a record!" Agent Bruick said as he walked into the room. "No, actually," Caitlin said, "we are going to need evidence, and that means skin, bones, bugs, clothes, and anything else collected at the scene." Caitlin demanded.

Bruick rolled his eyes and says "Bones are in storage, there was no skin left because of the buggy beetle thingies, and the buggy beetle thingies are in the incubator room. However, there is the URL of the autopsy, search FBI21006." "AWESOME!" I said, whipping out my phone and immediately connecting to the web.

"So the bones are located in limbo? Alright I'll just go on over and…" "Wait, how do you know about Limbo?" Bruick asked. "And you are going to need a pass for entry." "Oh, you mean like this?" Caitlin said, pulling out a scan card. "You know what, I'll just take yours and uh, LEAVE!" She ran out the door while grabbing the card from the agents hand before anyone could say anything.

"So, I'm going to go look at the directory and take a look at those African Flesh eating Beetles." Meagan said as she was walking out the door while I searched 'FBI autopsies' on YouTube. Greg started walking my way just as I found the link. "So" "Go away." I interrupted him. He turned around whispering cuss words as he walked out the door. I hit play.

Caitlin's Point of View

I walked up to the big metal door that read 'CONFIDENTIAL' and scanned the card I took from Greg on the reader to the right of the door. "ACCESS GRANTED, WELCOME" it said aloud. I opened the door to find row upon row, body upon body of skeletons, an Anthropologists' dream. Scanning the drawers, I discovered it was labeled by date, so I thought back to the pictures and walked to the October 2009 section. I found David's box and pulled it out, assembling his skeleton on the metal table in the front of the room. When the form somewhat resembled a human, I picked up the skull.

"What do you think you are doing in here?" A voice asked behind me. I turned around but kept my eyes on the cranium in my hands. "Blunt force trauma to the left side of the head, resembles a baseball bat, metal. It's not fatal though, might knock you out for a few and you would defiantly have a migraine when you woke up, but not enough to kill." I replied, finally looking up. In front of me was a man in a black suit with a striped tie. The name on the badge he was wearing read Seeley Booth.

"Do you have permission to be in here? No, you don't, why; because you are a kid." He said, without letting me answer. He grabbed my arm and started pulling me away from the body, giving me just enough time to place the skull back on the table before being dragged out the door and down the hall.

A/N: Please review, its the only thing that keeps us going!!!


	4. Chapter 3: Preliminary findings

Seeley dragged me all the way to the director's office by the wrist. "Stop struggling!" He said as I tried to pull my wrist from his grasp. I stopped, glared at him, and stomped on his foot while simultaneously elbowing him in the gut and locking my left foot behind his, knees crossing. I turned so my back was to him and pulled my wrist across my torso flipping him over and making him land flat on his back with a grunt. He sat up just as Director Cullen walked out.

"What in the world is going on out here?! Booth, why are you on the floor?" He asked. I stifled a laugh and looked around feigning innocence as Booth glared at me and answered his boss. "I found this kid in the confidential room, messing with the bones and took her out before she could contaminate any evidence" he said with a smug look on his face.

I looked at Cullen and then back at Booth as I waited for Cullen's reply. He pinched the bridge of his nose and said "Agent Booth this is Temperance Brennan's intern. She doesn't know it yet so I suggest you don't tell Dr. Brennan, she and two other girls are working on the David case. She was aloud to be in there." he said as I turned back to Seeley with raised eyebrows expecting an apology.

"Come on; let's get you back to where you came from." "Limbo?" I offered. "Director, how much have you told her?" One glance from Cullen however and he drug me back to the conference room, then to bone storage.

"Now as I was saying, the baseball bat did not kill him." I had drug Megan down to go over the evidence to fit the pieces together.

She looked through the manila folder, fingering pages. "It says here that Shawn Darmin bought a bat a week before the TOD. A metal Louisville slugger, 2008." She reached into the evidence box and pulled out a bagged baseball bat. "Cleaned with ammonia."

"Hmmm," I picked up the two distal phalanges and compared the hairline fractures. "What I really need is a mass spectrometer for the soil and ammonia samples." "Check the lab platfo- HEY! Look at this, defense wounds!" Caitlin screamed.

Meagan's POV

I left bone storage via elevator. Mid way through trip, Kyrah walked in with her I-pod in her hand, ear buds in. "What are you listening to?" I asked, grabbing the free ear bud. "-Tim has dirt and blood under the fingernails. Preliminary findings show hemorrhagic tissue by the-"I ripped it out.

"Greg gave me the I-tunes download for the autopsy vid!" She went silent before she looked at me. "What?" "I think I've found the cause of death."


	5. Chapter 4: Must be a test

A cold metal tables stood before us with the bones of David Caitlin had lain out. Kyrah was pointing to a part of David's body where the heart was. I went to grab the rolling microscope and plugged it into the computer to scan over the area Kyrah was pointing to. "Severe scraping along the 9-10 ribs, he was stabbed!" Caitlin said with a horrified look on her face. I was confused "Shouldn't you be used to death?" I asked. Caitlin looked at me with a pained face. "He wasn't just stabbed, Megan." She answered. "He was stabbed in just the right place that he had a slow painful death as he bled out. Even if someone had found him alive, there would be no way to help him." I was shocked, how could someone do this to another human being? I felt a weird tingling in my stomach as my heart plunged down. I shook my head, tore of the blue latex gloves we were required to were, and ran of the platform, heading for the first room I saw. Slamming and locking the door, I slid down, my back on the wall and curled my knees into my stomach, a tear escaping me.

"Are you alright?" A man asked with a voice that sounded like he just got out of high school. Looking up, I saw a short man, taller than me, with his hand extended as if he was debating whether or not to comfort me with it.

"Go away." I said, turning my head so he was out of my line of view. "I can't, this is my office and you locked the door." I sighed, exasperated. "Then unlock the freaking door and walk out! Jeez, what is this, kindergarten? Are you too small to reach the handle?" I screamed, more tears running down my face. "I can help you if you tell me what is wrong." He looked right in my eyes, wrong move. "WEHAT ARE YOU, MY PSCHYCIATRIST?! THE ONLY THING I WANT YOU TO DO IS CLOSE YOUR MOUTH AND LEAVE BEFORE I MAKE YOU LEAVE!" I screamed in his face, sitting up. He had a shocked look on his face but he was not afraid, nor was he backing down."My name is Dr. Sweets and I…" "Doctor? Dr. in what Sweets; NAPTIME?! I don't need help!" I said, stomping to the door, unlocking it, and running to the janitor's closet.

Kyrah's POV

I watched Megan run off the platform and had my own sinking feeling. What am I going to do? Caitlin started walking towards me and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Let's get some air." She said. I nodded my head and we walked to the sliding doors.

"This has to be a test!" I said as soon as we were outside, the sun gleaming in my face. A small child was running with a butterfly, her mother chasing after her, across the street, completely unaware of the pain we felt for the tortured man inside.

"That is very possible, if so, we must show them that we are not wimps who cower at the first sign of pain." She said. That gave me something to think about. "We should go check on Megan." I stated while staring at the sun, dipping behind an old oak tree in front of us. I stood up and Caitlin followed my lead.

The doors opened and the guard greeted us. I smiled, knowing that it looked forced and it did not reach my eyes. I heard a loud scream and looked to Caitlin. I am sure my expression mirrored hers, shocked, we knew that scream. We raced to the main lab to see Megan leaving a room and running to a closet, this could not be good. I started to run to the door, but Caitlin beat me.

"Megan?" She asked while knocking on the door. "Will you please come out?" "NO!" was her reply. I looked to Caitlin, about to ask her what we should do when she held her hand out, signaling for me to wait. "Well will you at least unlock the door so we can come in?" I listened intently as I heard the soft click of the lock. A smile graced my lips as Caitlin and I were pulled into the closet by Megan, the door quickly closing behind us.

The room was so dark; I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. "Megan?" I asked, looking up "Would there happen to be a light somewhere in this closet?" I was momentarily blinded as a bright light shone not three feet from my face. Megan's face was blotchy and red, tear stains running all the way down her cheeks. I gasped and grabbed her in a hug, pulling Caitlin with me. She grimaced, but joined in anyway.

"You have to be strong; this is a test to see if we can handle this. Be strong." Caitlin said. Megan lifted her head from my shoulder. "You're right! They gave us this test, the hardest case emotionally, to see if we could handle it! So let's prove to them we can!"

Somehow, we left the room smiling and laughing, heading toward the steps of the platform. We stopped and took a deep breath as we headed up the three steps. As soon as we reached the top, we headed straight to work, putting on our gloves and surprising anyone who witnessed Megan's episode. "This is a very rare soil!" Megan gasped. "It is only found in the tropical islands of Hawaii, the victim was moved!" I looked up. "If this is true, it could be the explanation of the post-mortem bruising found on his back. If he was dragged over rocks, it would most likely be the cause!"

I watched as Caitlin flipped through the manila folder. Her face lit up and she looked at us, I knew she had found something. "Someone get the interrogation tapes of Payton Marks and Christopher Kennely!" She said as we all simultaneously smiled.


	6. Chapter 5: Meeting 'them'

"Why were you in Hawaii?" Agent Booth asked Payton. "Pause it!" I screamed. The video of Agent Booth interogation Payton Marks suddenly stopped. "Zoom in on her face." I demanded. She's as pale as a ghost! She's scared?" Caitlin realized. "She's looking down and to the left, why is she lying?" Megan asked. I shrugged and hit play. "I was there for my best friend's weding!" She replied, her voice breaking. "Really?" Booth asked her. "What was her name?" She began to stutter. "Uh well, I was with, uh, JESSICA ALBA!" His eyebrows rose in a way that said ' I can't believe you said something so stupid!' "Oh really… Jessica Alba. You must have some pictures, you don't just go to Jessica Alba's wedding and not get pictures." He said, emphisizing Jessica's name. "Look at her, shes practically sweating!" I comented. "Her sweat glands do seem to be over working." Megan said behind me, acting like an egotistical college professer. I looked up to see the screen blur and then change to Christopher's interogation.

"I didn't say what you said I did and why I'm here for cuz im a good person and… and… and." Christopher blurted, starting to freak out. He wasn't even asked a question. Megan started to laugh her head off while Booth left the room. "Where is Booth going?" Caitlin spoke my mind. Just as she said this, Booth walked back in with a bag of cookies and a coke. The three of us were on the ground laughing as tears ran down our faces.

"Wait guys, look at this. Payton lied to us, but she didn't kill David." Megan said. Caitlin and I ran to the computer she was working on the see a tv channel playing. "Camaras followed her everywhere." Caitlin realized "Which means she couldn't have killed David, which means that the only person unaccounted for is Chris, which means that we found our killer!"

Caitlin's POV

We sat in director Cullen's office as we waited for Agent Gregory Bruik to arrive with he grins on our faces. He walked into the room, looked between us and Cullen and sighed, "What did they do now?" Director rolled his eyes "They solved the case Bruik." Greg looked shocked and turned to us. "How did you do that?" I spoke up. "We used process of illimination to find out that David was killed in Hawaii. Then we cheacked the credit card records of every suspect to see that only two of them had bought transportation the Hawaii during David's TOD. Megan found out that Payton was being watched by camaras her entire stay so the only possible explination was that Chris's 3 hour stay on the beautiful islands was to do something horrible."

They looked astonished, their mouths hanging wide open. Without looking, like his mind was being controled by something, Cullen opened his top desk drawer and pulled out an envalope, handing it to Kyrah. She opened it to find a single name on the blank note card. CHRISTOPHER KENNELY. I'm sure the whole floor went deaf as Megan and Kyrah screamed. I grimaced but smiled along with them.

The sound of the door opening grabbed my attention. Two boys, looking around our age, ran in. "Sir, whats going on?" The tallest boy asked, he had dirty blond hair down to his eyes and was wearing a gray sweat shirt that read FBI in big block letters in the right top hand corner.

The boy next to him jabbed him in the ribs and pointed to us. His eyes buldged and quickly said "I mean, hello grandpa, I just thought I'd stop by with Slade here and say hello!" He said gesturing to the brunette next to him. "I'm not your grandfather Peter!" Cullen said in disgust. "Now you and Slade go get Shaun and get back to training." The boys left in a hurry and the door closed behind him. "Now girls," Director said, turning back to us. "you have passed your test, how would you like to train under our finest and work for us in the year 2014?" I looked at the girls and at the same time we screamed "YES!" Just then the door opened and another blond boy with brown eyes fell in with the two that left earlier. "You cannot be serious director Cullen, they can't train with us, they're girls!" The boy named Peter said. I scoffed at him and whispered "Sexsist!" The girls giggled at my remark but stopped as soon as Cullen looked at us.

"Well I wasn't going to tell you until you all passed, but girls these are they boys, boys these are the girls. You'll be working with them." He said with a fake smile on his face. "What?" Six young voices screamed at the same time." "We can't work with them, they will get in our way!" Slade said. "Well we don't want to work with you either you… you." "Egotistical neanderthals?" I sugested. Kyrah looked at me and nodded. "Egotistical neanderthals!" The boys shook their heads and walked to the door. "I have had enough of this!" Greg stood up. "Boys, come." The boys stopped in their tracks, looked and Greg, and walked to Cullen's desk, keeping their eyes on the floor."Sit." They looked around and the boy I could only guess was Shaun spoke up.

"But sir, there are no chairs!" Gregory glared at them. "Than sit on the floor!" The groaned but turned and sat at our feet. I tried not to laugh as they wriggled aroung, trying to find a comfortable spot without invading eachothers space. "Now we thought ahead, if we trained you six under the best, that when they are gone and you are here, you would supposedly be the best squad we've had. But if you all don't stop your bickering, shut your mouths, and coooperate, than you will be going back to school like the little normal brats you truly are!" He screamed in our faces. All of us winced and never met his eyes.

"So, are you going to get along, or should I get the release forms?" He asked. "No, well work with eachother!" We all replied franticlly, we never promised we would get along. "Good, then I suggest you get to know oneanother because you'll be spending a whole lot of time together." With that we were ushered into the hall and where the door closed behind us and we were left alone. Behind the door I could hear Cullen talking to Bruick. "Nice job!" I rolled my eyes and looked at the pathetic boys in front of me.


	7. Chapter 6: What happens in autopsy

Criminology High

Chapter 6: What happens in Autopsy…

Disclaimer: Of course we don't own Bones or NCIS…

Kyrah's POV

We each stared at one person; Megan at Slade, Caitlin at Peter, and I stared at -name. Megan crossed her arms.

"So, who's what, and Where's your leader?" She rolled her eyes and gave a side-glare at us, giving us a 'I-am-the-leader-aren't-I?' stare. I acknowledged this and elbowed Caitlin to do the same.

Slade raised his chin, declaring himself. Megan tapped her foot once, our signal that meant she got it.

"You with the face. Name, stat, and something about you." Everyone looked confused. "U-G-H. They sent us out here to get to know each other, then they're going to ask us what we know about each other…"

"Uh… My name is Slade, intern as a field agent, and… my favorite color is blue." He almost asked.

'That's not very surprising' Megan signed to us in ASL. 'I think we have another stupid on our hands.' Caitlin tried to stifle a laugh.

'You think?' I responded. The boys were OBVIOUSLY confused.

"My turn. My name is Megan, I'm the forensic scientist… I speak fluent English, German, Spanish, and American Sign Language." She made a gun with her hand and jerked it to the left. 'You too guys.'

We all introduced ourselves to the guy that we stared at. My partner's name was Shaun. He was the assistant Medical examiner. Great… I thought to myself. We are going to be working together for a long, long time…

***Caitlin's POV

Great, My person just HAD to be the hacker, not to mention that he's pretty weird. Long dirty blonde hair fell down to the nape of his neck. his eyes were a grey greenish-blue color that were childish.

I turned to see what he was doing. He was on his computer, pen and paper in front of him, writing down untrackable numbers. Summoning all the forece I could, I slapped him in the back of his cranium. A dill 'thunk' sounded when his forehead collided with the monitor.

"Socialize a little bit, will ya?"

***Megan's POV

We were at a crime scene. An old one. The body had been moved ages ago. Slade was chatting with some NCIS agent. An Israeli woman supervised me bagging evidence while she yelled in Hebrew to her phone.

Tucked into the couch, I found a match book, three matches missing. That was congruent with the three cigarette butts outside. Otherwise, an easy scene.

"'You done?" Slade and agent DiNozzo.

"Almost, give me a few more minutes." I double swept the couch with my UV light. Slade and DiNozzo went on and on about the gear he'd receive as a full-fledged agent. Ziva had switched to English, only saying, "Yes, okay, shalom."

"Are you finished, Megan?" She pronounced my name Mig-Haan. I ignored it and scraped some dirt off the carpet and into and evidence container.

"I believe so," I replied, finally.

"Agent Gibbs has given me instructions to bring you back to the Jeffersonian. He felt it was urgent."

***Kyrah's POV

I watched the room as Megan swept the UV light over the couch. I saw some discoloration, but nothing in her face changed. She stood up and started talking to Ziva. Shaun stepped forward.

"Hey, uh, Megan?" He wasn't asking her attention, more like if he should use her first or last name. "D'ya mind if I swab the couch?" At her nod, he pulled out a vile of clear liquid and a cotton swab. He expertly dipped the swab in the vial, rolled it on the sofa, and replaced it in the tube. He shook it (it turned orange) and said, "Blood?"

"Yeah, Canis Domesticus. Dog," I snapped, recognizing the tangerine color, "Can we have at the remains now?"

"Okay, so, um… I am NOT used to conducting an autopsy in front of 14 year olds… so uh, could you guys… um…" Camille Saroyan, the 'Head Honcho' according to Booth, studdered. "Aha! Lets make this a game! What should you guys be doing now, according to protocol?"

"Scrub up, wash hands, get gloves, pull hair back, find face masks…" We rattled off the checklist in the pathology textbook in the breakroom. Cam eyed us.

"What should you be doing now?" Sly-sounding.

"You just- _ooohhhh!_" Shaun realized. Cam held out two FBI drawstring bags.

"Di Croce, Harris, here. You can change in the biohazard showers."

When we were finished with prep, Shaun looking stupid with his sort-of long blonde hair pulled back, Cam walked us through the autopsy.

"Internal bleeding in the right lung and above the eighth vertebrae," I said, marking it on the projector board.

"Maybe that's what killed her!" Shaun said, excitement in his eyes. I looked at him in amazement.

"Yes! That must be it because the knife that plunged through her heart couldn't have killed her!" I rolled my eyes and turned back to the dead girl in front of me.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Shaun commented.

"Yeah, the beauty of decomposing cadavers. I have to smile when I think about it." Shaun looked at me.

"No, the way that they chose the six of us, they could've chose anyone in any state in America, but they chose you, and me, and the others…" He replied, slowly getting closer. I stepped back each time he stepped forward. My back hit the wall and I looked around, searching for an escape route. I closed my eyes and turned my head as Shaun stepped within a few inches of me. Just then, the door opened, and Cam walked in. Shaun jumped and stepped back. Saroyan froze, and looked between us.

"Whats going on?" Shaun started to stammer, and I stepped in.

"He didn't understand the stab wounds on the victim, so we tried to re-enact it," I said, flushed.

"Alright," said, "Well, tell me what you got."

We walked out of the Autopsy Lab and I ripped off my gloves, throwing them in the nearest garbage can, and quickened my pace, trying to lose Shaun.

"Hey, wait!" He shouted, running toward me. I slowly turned around. "Thank you for saving me…" he said, sticking out his hand. I faked a smile and shook it.

"You're…welcome…" I turned and walked awat befor he could say anything else, heading to bone storage and the bug room to get the girls so we could go for starbucks.

AN: you know what to do… More reviews= sooner updates.

AN2: You may have noticed the changing in names... The three authors got to thinking and thinking and thinking, and we found that the names didn't suit our needs... Its now: Megan, Caitlin, and Kyrah... Slade, Peter, and Shaun. Yes, our first suspect was SHAWN.. this is SHAUN... There's a difference. I swear.


	8. Chapter 7: Surveillance

Criminology High Chapter Seven: Surveillance

Caitlins POV

I heard the door open and turned around. Megan and Kyrah were standing at the door and I knew they had news to tell by the looks on their faces. I put down the vertebrae I had in my hand and grabbed my jacket.

"Let's go," I sighed. We were walking down the hall of the FBI building on our way to Starbucks when we heard the boys.

"I CAN'T believe you would do that!" Slade said as he threw his hands up in the air and began to pace in front of a scared looking Shaun. Peter was on the floor laughing, "You shook her hand? Why didn't you kiss her, you idiot?" Slade stopped pacing and Peter sat up. Shaun shook his head and answered.

"She had this look in her eyes when I walked up to her, fear, she was scared of me! I don't want to scare her! Guys, I think I might…like her." He looked at the boys and waited for their reply.

I couldn't listen to this anymore. I grabbed Megan and Kyrah's arms and pulled them outside. Kyrah stared at the wall behind us.

"He said he liked me, and earlier, I rejected him…" She said in an _almost_ monotone voice.

"Why didn't you tell me he came onto you?" My face was turning red and my head was pounding.

"'tell you at Starbucks."

We ordered Frapuccinos and sat down at a table outside. Megan looked at Kyrah, "Explain NOW." Kyrah took a sip from her Venti Java Chip Frapuccino with double whipped cream and a pump of Mocha and began.

"Well, we were working on the body and he was being an idiot saying that internal bleeding killed her instead of the knife through her heart and then he started to walk toward me and my back hit the wall and he was inches away from me and then Cam walked in and NOTHING HAPPENED!" she said that in one breath.

I looked to Megan to see her turn toward me.

"I believer her." She nodded.

"I do too." I looked back to Kyrah. "What are we going to do? Do you like him?" She froze and looked at me, it seemed like she was having an internal battle.

"Tell the truth, we can't help you if lie," Megan added as we waited for Kyrah to make up her mind.

Megan's ********** POV

"Alright, so here it is, these walkie-talkies look like buttons, so pin them to your shirts. These necklaces are cameras; hang them around your neck. And these are normal earwigs, so stuff them into your ears and have your hair cover it." I said. We had to see what they were saying without us there. We headed our different ways.

"I have received sight of the boys, their location is Hollister." Kyrah said through the earpiece. "Over."

I said, "What's over?"

"Over."

"What is?"

"Over."

"What?"

"Over." Caitlin groaned.

"Will you please stop that? I'm getting a headache from all your bickering. _And Kyrah_, anthropologically speaking, a person going undercover will use the word 'over' after they said what is needed to be said so the ones listening know they are through speaking."

"I'm not an idiot, I already knew that!"

"Then stay on their tails, and tell me when they are by the food court and we'll switch, we need to get them apart!" I waited for her reaction…

"Over," She said, probably to annoy me. I began to walk towards Wetzel's Pretzels because I was hungry, when Kyrah called in.

"They are heading for Chic-fil-a, get ready." I ran to my position by the escalators. As soon as I saw the boys, I gave Kyrah and Caitlin the signal for my plan to begin. I sat down on the escalator, and slid down on my butt, making sure my wig didn't fall off as I skid down, screaming. Just as I planned, the boys turned to look and freaked out. they started running to me when Caitlin spilled the water on the ground, and Kyrah slid in it. Caitlin got up and fell over Kyrah, causing another distraction for the three boys running to my aid. Just as I had hoped, two of them stopped and ran for their aid, splitting them up. I called to the girls before the boys reached us.

"Make sure you have the tracker and speaker in your hand, and when they bend down, place it on the back of their neck, not their shirts. I didn't get any reply because the boys reached us.

"Hey, are you Okay?" Slade asked. I groaned.

"No, I think I just twisted my ankle or something." I looked up. Slade reached down and helped me up. When he reached for my hand, I made it so he had to kneel down and grab my torso. I wrapped my hands around his neck and locked the devices on his hair and neck. Success. He pulled me up, and I put my feet on the ground, expecting to be fine. I was wrong.

Pain shot up my leg. I collapsed, only to fall back into his arms.

"Cai-" I stopped myself, "Come, child." Strained, gasping, barely whispering.

Caitlin rushed over and I hobbled to a bench. She knelt at my feet, and Slade sat next to me. If a plan goes wrong, you have to make it right. My mood shifted to anger. "Go on," I snarled at him, "I'll be fine."

"But-" he tried.

"But? But what? You are not needed. You and your friends get out and do whatever you want. I'm not going to die," I snapped. I hated when people care _too_ much for me. I inhaled sharply. Caitlin was inspecting my ankle.

"It's a clean break from what it feels like. I feel for you, Megan." She looked up, and I groaned, then twisted my head to glare at Slade until he left with Shaun and Peter.

Kyrah was next to us by then. "Well, you almost blew it… nice." I started laughing. I broke my leg in an attempt to see what guys said about us behind our backs, and I almost blew it.

"Well, since we're all here, Kyrah, you have the speaker… Turn it on!" Caitlin requested. Kyrah pulled out a black box and turned one of the dials.

"No, I never said I didn't like her." The voice sounded like Slade's.

"She is pretty, though." Slade…Slade…

"OHMYGOSH." I almost screamed. Kyrah and Caitlin looked confused. "He's in my social studies class." I looked at the tiles and began to sign. 'I saw him…once… he's pretty smart. I can't believe I forgot him!' "WAIT. How does he know it's me? We were in disguise." Just then, Slade interrupted.

"I only wish I caught her name." I relaxed. I looked up to see everyone in the food court staring at us.

"Shoot." I thought fast. I pulled out three pairs of headphones and connected them to the three-way output in the speaker. They each grabbed a pair and took one of my arms.

AN: Finally, a little less case work and more lab rats trying to be field agents… REVIEW or else you won't see any more of Kyrah, Caitlin, Megan, Peter, Slade, or Shaun.


	9. Chapter 8: So, Who wants Ice Cream?

Criminology High Chapter Eight:: So, Who wants Ice Cream?

Caitlin's POV***

Kyrah and I were waiting outside in the waiting room in the hospital. Megan's laptop was sitting in front of us, showing the video feed of the boys. We were both whomperjawed.

"What the Flagnard did he just say?" Kyrah asked.

"Did he just say…?" I trailed off. As if to answer our question, Slade repeated himself.

"So, as I was saying, there's this girl in my social studies class, her name is, wait, that can't be right…" He paused, murmuring to himself. It was a long pause that when reseumed, caused us to jump alittle. "Wait, if the girl-at-the-mall-looked-like-the-girl-in-my-social-studies-class,-except-with-lighter-shorter-hair-and-they-can't-be-the-same-as-each-other-without-me-noticing…" He slowed down, whispering the last word.

"I'm the hacker, and puzzles are my thing, but you've got even me confused," Peter said.

"You know that one girl, the FBI science tech (or something like that), Megan? She's in my social studies class! I can't believe I didn't notice that before!" At Slade's words, we silently ran into Megan's room. As soon as we reset the transmission, Shaun spoke.

"What about that girl in the mall? You seemed to enjoy helping her."

"She just…reminded me of Megan, that's all."

"Hmm," Shaun 'hmmed' as if he was skeptical that was the truth. "Do you have either of their numbers? E-mails? Facebook?"

"Like im going to take romance advice from you, Romeo." Shaun looked down, remembering the earlier incident in the autopsy lab.

"Hey!" Defensive. "My advice is probably beter than Peter's anyway!"

"Which is none because there is nobody (how did you put it earlier, Slade?) 'catching my eye'," Peter pointed out.

"You _have _to at_ least _thought about Somers." A noise, however, stopped Peter from answering Shaun.

'DROID', it was mechanical and monotone, sounding three times on either side of the speakers. Megan, Kyrah and I scrambled for our bags.

"When'd we get these?" Kyrah asked, holding up a smartphone.

"I don't know," I replied. I only received one line of text:

Get back to the office NOW- Cullen.

Megan's POV***

We were back in the director's office, with me and my blue-casted leg resting on another chair.

"So. You what?" Cullen asked.

My hands were pressed together, my index fingers touching my mouth. "Chill for a second, okay?" My eyes focused on the corner of his desk. "If anything, you should be proud of us. We tagged the boys without being detected. The only bad part was this." I lifted my leg a little bit. "I'm sorry, but you're getting a little pissy, and if you treat us like this 24/7, I'm afraid that I would have to say I'm done." I looked at his face, boring into his eyes.

I could feel the shock coming from Bruick in waves. My eyes never left Cullen's grey, cold ones.

"Well," Cullen started, "I have never, ever, had someone so young tell me how to live my life."

"If you don't-" I tried, this guy was weird. I could already tell. He raised his palm, signaling me to stop.

"No, usually adults are mean to kids, trying to force the world on their shoulders, but you, young lady, are very mature for your age, and you and your friends deserve to be treated like one of us." He frowned, a little bit, still shocked.

I always win. I smirked, looking at the floor. I took my phone out of my pocket, putting people's numbers in out of my mental contact list. This Phone is AMAZING. It could do almost everything at once. Coming here, I changed the message sound to something a little more…me.

My phone blared suddenly, making me jump. It was a text message: 'Hey? where r u?'

I flipped my phone sideways, in order to use the full keyboard. 'Who the heck are you?' I hit 'send'.

"Bruick, you aren't allowed to say one word about this to the boys, not one. If you do, you are off the squad." He turned to us. "Girls, go get yourself some ice cream in the shop down the street."

My phone beeped again. 'Ur partner…"

I rolled my eyes as I left the room. "I kinda hate Cullen for giving the boys our numbers." as if one, both Kyrah's and Caitlin's phones chirped.

'Slade,' I put into the phone, 'What do you want?' Another tap of the send button.

"Shaun! I know its you!" Kyrah showed us the text: 'hahaha, I know where you are….' "Stupid kid, and no, he doesn't."

***Kyrah's POV

We were at the ice cream place, checking out our phones. Megan and I were on Facebook, writing something witty for our status'.

The bells on the door dinged, and three boys walked in; our boys.

"Again? Caitlin whimpered. She glanced at Megan. "What did you do?"

"Why do you always blame me?" Megan asked as she pushed her sunglasses up higher in her hair. Slade slid into the booth next to her. She slid to the corner. Peter scrunched himself next to Caitlin. "Hey." Caitlin took one look at him and slapped his cheek. He fell out of the booth.

Megan flipped out her phone, franticly typing something. She replaced it in her pocket moments later. I signed 'What?'

'Hang on' She signed back. I froze, waiting. My hip vibrated. I sighed and pulled out my phone. From Megan: 'Wait? Why are we so mean to them again, and , letting you know, I'm trapped by lover-boy over here…' I looked at Caitlin, confused as well. She shrugged and started typing something.

"So." Megan's elbow rested on the top of our booth, phone in hand, her body turned toward Slade.

"You told us to come," Slade replied.

"To make peace." I chimed in. 'We're going to have to get along if we are going to be working together.' I signed.

"Ugh," Caitlin rolled her eyes. Megan went back to her phone, presumably answering a text. Slade did a double take on her leg. We hadn't quite thought of a lie for it yet.

"What happened?"

Without pausing, Megan started: "I was at Kyrah's house-"

"It's all a lie. You were at the mall today, earlier, weren't you?" He fired.

"The mall? No, I went swimming at Kyrah's house; off the roof, onto the trampoline, and into the pool. I missed the tramp a little bit, giving the ole' ankle a clean break." She tapped the solid cast on her foot.

"It's a lie." He shook his head.

"Proof." She reached to the back of her hair, "It's still damp. You can… feel it if you want." I stifled a laugh, she was GOOD at lying.

"Why did you think she was at the mall?" I asked. Slade blushed.

"Ah- Nothing…"

'Because he likes you and wants to see you everywhere' Caitlin signed behind Slade. We laughed.

"What?" Slade said, a little confused, a little mad.

"You tell us, and we tell you, 'Social-studies boy'." Megan replied. She smirked and cocked her head to the right side.

"You figured it out too, huh?" He leaned forward, right into Megan's comfort zone. She flipped.

Her outward flying hands collided with his chest, flinging him out of the booth. She whipped out her phone, typed furiously, and replaced it. My hand vibrated ('I gotta get a good ring tone for this') . I already knew, but when I saw the 'texter ID', Shaun, I opened the message. 'I don't hate you. Slade got in Megan's comfort zone. Hypothetically, Caitlin's immature. You are pretty cool when your not attacking me." I half-smiled, then remembered something and frowned. 'Don't judge me, they've been through a lot.'

Slade had gotten up and brushed himself up. He slid back into the booth next to Megan. She glared at him. I broke the angered tension.

"So… Who wants ice cream?"

***Caitlin's POV

Once again, we found ourselves in Cullen's office. He instructed us to bring the bags our instructors gave us ( the ones with the phones ).

"You were all given those bags. You have probably noticed the Cellular phones in them. ("Not to mention the bills you six racked up in texting," Bruick noted.) You will return to your classes, but must have these bags on you at all times. When we get a case, we'll reach you. You are all excused from homework as you need to study on your forensic fields." He dismissed us back to Gilbert.

A/N: Sorry it's been a while. I, author 1, am sorry. I was in possession of the book, and forgot to type it up. What do you think? I promise more forensic action next chapter!


	10. Chapter 9: Our first REAL case

Criminology high: Chapter nine: Our first REAL case

Disclaimer:: Do you guys honestly take us for Hanson and Bellasario?

Caitlins POV***

While driving back to my house in the van that picked us up, I looked at the clock on the dashboard: Two in the morning. Dang, we stayed there all night. We pulled up to my house and Bruick walked with me to explain to my parents why I was late. I rang the doorbell and looked down, pulling at my shirt. Greg looked at me and asked, "What?"

I turned red and replied, "I'm wearing my PE clothes from yesterday, and I have PE last hour." Just then, the door opened and my teary eyed mother gasped.

"Caitlin! Where were you?" She screamed and pulled me into a suffocating hug. Greg introduced himself and shook her hand. Slinking past them, and walking to my room, I was greeted by a mess. I shook it off and fell into my bed, exhausted from the running around I had done.

I was shaken from an intresting dream that I probably wouldn't remember by a blaring siren. It was one of those ringtones you can download that's so highpitched that only teens can hear it.I picked up the droid and silently screamed "MEGAN! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" At some point yesterday, Megan was able to change my ringtone, and text me at 4:30 in the morning, two hours before I intended to wake up, and ask me how I liked my new 'tone. Why on earth is she up at four thirty, I probably will never know.

I climbed out of bed since I labeled falling asleep again as virtually impossible, grabbed some clothes, and headed to take a shower.I would think of how to get back at her later. Climbing out, I dryed off and put on my clothes, brushed my teeth and hair, and put in my contacts. I walked into my room and grabbed my drawstring bag Greg gave us, throwing it in my backpack, and my phone into my pocket. I grabbed a poptart and a bottle of Powerade (my usual breakfast) from the kitchen. It was 6:30 by then. School starts in an hour, so I decided to stop at the park.

Slinging my backpack over one shoulder, I headed down the street to Masen Park. Dropping my bag on a bench, I ran to the swings. I curled my arm around the chain and leaned my head on it. My eyes wandered to the spot where Megan and I were Kidnapped. Without realizing it, My eyes filled with tears and I pulled my knees to my chest, keeping hold of the chain so I wouldn't fall off. I rubbed my forarm as if I could still feel the handprint bruise from two years ago.

I could see it play out in front of me like I was just a passerby, watching a scene play out. Just then, a car pulled me out of my memories.

"CAITLIN! Come on! We'll give you a ride to school!" Kyrah screamed. I jumped off the swing, grabbed my backpack, and ran to the car. My phone began to scream and Kyrah grimaced. I turned to her.

"Megan," Was all I had to say and she instantly understood.

Kyrah's POV:: Between fourth and fifth hour, three days later

As I walked from Advanced biology to Honors Math, my phone broke out in the Mission Impossible theme.

"Hello?" A passing teacher questioned my 'cellular device'. I held up my index finger as if to say "One moment."

"We've got a case," Bruick informed me," We're out front."

" 'Kay, be there in a sec," I hung up, brushed past the teacher, and pulled my long dirty blonde hair into a ponytail, all the while hurrying to the front of the school. Upon arrival at the black van, I stuffed my phone and a pair of laytex gloves into one of my pockets. I swung into the Vehical just as Caitlin ran up. We were greeted my the boys, Megan, DiNozzo, Dr. Brennan, and Bruick. The latter breifed us.

" 'Kay Arken, Kayidah to you, Construction worker found a "Half gone" body, as he put it, hanging from his crane. According to Arken, he doesn't know who it is." Shaun raised his hand.

"Sir, what do you mean by 'half gone'?"

"I have absolutely no Idea."

Once we saw the Crime scene, we knew we'd never have guessed what "Half gone" meant.

CAITLINS POV******

DiNozzo and Brennan handed us each decked out polaroid cameras. A bucket with evidence tags in it was placed in reach.

-SNAP-

I shook the piece of photo paper. The top half of a teenager materialized. They wore a verybaggy T-shirt. The white stripes on it were stained with blood. Thier eyes were closed and heavily eyelined. A punk spiked bracelet and choker adorned them. It could've been a guy or a girl.

-SNAP-

I caught the lower half of the Body...It was... gone. A pair of black skinny jeans hung limply off the pelvis. From thier belly-button down was yellow-white bone with little connective tissue left on it.

-SNAP-

Below the Cadaver (about eight or nine feet) on the ground was a pair of battered VANS and a flashdrive.

The controls on Arken's crane were wiped clean. The Key slot showed severe evidence of tampering.

"Greaaaaat," I groaned at the lack of actual evidence.

A/N: Sorry its belated, the author who had the written copy was on vacation (and still is!). Luckily She got this piece typed up! Enjoy and don't forget, the reviews make us so happy we almost pass out. Almost, thank god...

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	11. Chapter 10: Marshmallows and Punching

Criminology high Chapter ten:: Marshmallows and Punching bags

Disclaimer: We own this!... plot... not anyone or anything you recognise.

Kyrah's POV****

We had the body down from the crane. The lower half appeared to have been acid desolved. The bones held just enough connective tissue to hold them together.

"Uh... The victim was (for want of a better word) bisected accross the liver. I can't get an accurate reading."

"Why can't you get it from what's left?" Typical DiNozzo.

"Because he was FROZEN...dundunduuuuuun," I added the dramatic sound effect at the end to everyone byt The M.E. and DiNozzo's enjoyment.

"So, can't you use the eye or something?" I ground my teeth and held the "Meat" thermometer as if I were about to stab him, but I calmed myself down.

Sighing, I replied, "No, because to get an accurate T.O.D., you need the temperature of the internal organs, but the freezer he was probably shoved it messed with his internal temp so I can't get a good reading."

DiNozzo rolled his eyes, "Whatever," and walked to the automatic sliding doors. Ducky and I turned our attention to the body found in a navy warehouse. Dr. Donald Mallard walked me through the steps of an 'unusual' autopsy.

MEGANS POV*****

I had waited in _my_ lab, waiting for them to get back with the evidence, but I wasn't bored because I was checking out my equipment. It looked like Abby Scuito's lab, with another room attatched by a glass wall and door. The front room held a PC, connected to a chemical tester thing (A mass spectromether, if I remember right). The door was wide open, along with the windows. The walls were magenta, with a picture of a sunset in the savannah on one.

"Hey," I spun around, finding Slade holding a box labeled 'Evidence'.

"You're back." I smiled, putting my hands on the stainless steel table. "What do you have for me?"

"Well, thats the thing. You have two options: One, work alone after the lead forensic scientist is done, or two, work with the lead scientist. Your choice." He shrugged, setting the box down.

I knew it was going to be something like this, of course we weren't going to be working alone on our first case. I bit my lip, thinking, but I already knew the answer. "Well, I'd like to meet her-slash-him. I'm pretty sure we'd get along." I shrugged also, walking around the table and out of the door.

His name was Devon Rhodes, going by Devon. He was tall, but hunched over. He had thining, peppery hair, and green eyes.

"Devon, where do I put this vial of sample Acid?"

"Who do you think you are walking around here with confidential evidence? No one told me it was bring your kid to work day!"

I dropped the vial in its holder and stalked toward the so-called-scientist."I'm not a 'kid', and if you'd step out of your egotistical bubble and look at the event board, you'd see a picture of me and my friends on the newbie section! Now, where do I put this freaking vile?"

Devon's eyes went wide as he took a step back, pointing to the shiny table near a microscope and computer. I dropped it and headed off of the platform."Where are you goin?" He asked.

"I changed my mind. I'd rather work on the evidence alone. Everything goes through me first. Don't ruin anything," I said, turning to look him in the eye, "Because I'll know."

The bag in front of me swayed as my fist collided with it. I had slammed the gym door for emphasis and used my bare hands to beat the thick, foam filled, cylinder hanging from the celing. I paused, shoving a bloody handful of marshmallows into my mouth. I stepped back up to the bag. It was white, save for a few spots where my bloodied knuckles beat into it. My cocked fist sprung forward and collided with the bag. Back and forth it swung to the rhythm of my punches.

The gym door opened and clicked shut, but I still punched.

"What are you doing?" Slade materialized in my view, behind the punching bag.

With everyword, I punched. "I hate how everyone here thinks-" I licked the sweat off my lips and brushed my forehead on my shoulder, drying the beads of perspiration. "-that they get to bee the boss of everyone." I put more force behind my shoulders. "I HATE IT!" At the word 'it', I his the bag so hard it flew off the chain.

Stalking back to the table in my boot, I stuffed another handful of marshmallows in my mouth, stained red and metallic tasting from my blood.

"Megan." Slade carefully approached me, not wanting to get hurt.

"What?" I asked through my snack.

"Let's go get your hands checked out." He took my hands in his, examining them. The skin was practically broken to the bones, yet I didn't feel anything. My adrenalin rush was still present. "I'm starting to think you would be the field agent." He chuckled.

Blood still flowed from my hands, dripping to the floor. My mind started to settle, and I felt like I hade chafed my hands pretty badly. The floor was spattered with red dots and I quickly wiped my face on my shirt, not wanting anyone to think I killed someone.

I never found gloves, nor did I have time to put any on before I blew up. I would have to wait a while before Devon, I shuddered and rolled my eyes, was done. I had time to spare. "Are you doing anything later?"

"No, but we're getting your hands checked out first."

I sighed. "I know I'm accident prone, but-"

Slade rolled his eyes. "We're going down to whats-his-face in autopsy."

There was no way I could go down to autopsy. I had a dream, nightmare, actually. "No! I can't go down there, sorry. Loooooong story." I wished that would be enough. I held my left hand in my right. I wanted to be back in my lab with my spinny chair, except I would be working on the walls, stripping down the paint and repainting it. I was a painter and my own room was a mural from all the time I had to paint it.

I had big plans for my lab. On the celing was going to be a dragon, the wall with the windows a sea with dolphins, the opposite wall a desert sunset with a suargo cactus standing alone, the back wall a rainbow with a pot of gold.

The time it took me to space out was the time it took for slade to get the M.E. His hands, old and whithered, carefully ran over my hands, slightly stretching the the skin over my knuckles, making me inhale sharply.

"Goodness, child! What have you done!" Slade stepped in, planning to tell the truth. "She beat up a punching bag with her bare hands." The M.E. tsked, pulling out gauze bandages from his kit. I let him wrap up my hands, the antiseptic cool on my cuts.

"You have a lot of agression in you, Megan. It is sometimes a gift, but it can also be a curse. Here," He handed me two ibuprophen tabs and left.

"Want to go to Starbucks?" I asked

We sat at a small round table by the window, he sat accross from me. He swirled the straw in his coffee, I sipped my frappucino.

"You aren't so bad after all," I stared at the table, not looking up.

"You, too," I could feel his eyes on me. I glanced up into his hazel eyes, mesmerized. Without taking his eyes off me, he took a swig. "I like working here, well, you know what I mean." He said slowly breaking eye contact to gaze out the window.

"Yeah, it's nice." I slid my bandaged hand over his, and his palm turned upward.

"Hey Megan." I head Kyrah's voice right next to my ear, making me jump five feet.

KYRAH'S POV*****

I saw them sitting together, Megan had just put her hand over his. The overwhelming deside to break this 'moment' took over me. I put my face next to Megan's. "Hey Megan." She jumped and jerked her hand into her lap.

"Kyrah." I could tell she was on the defence now.

"What happened to you hands?" I brought up a chair and sat next to her. The barista asked me if I was ordering anythin, and I ordered a JavaChip Frappucino.

Megan fingered her bandages. "Devon tried to be the boss of me." She looked up her eyes were a bright grey-blue that pierced me to the core.

"So you beat him up?" She smirked.

"Totally. What's the best way to hide the body?"

"Well, personally, I like to go 37 1/2 miles off the coast and start a gasoline fire and- WAIT?" I slammed my coffee on the table, "YOU KILLED HIM?"

"Shh, and no. I didn't kill him... thought the punching bag in the gym will need repairs. Why are you here? Further more, how did you find us?" I pulled an earbud out of my jacket pocket and handed it to her.

"What are you listening to?" Slade.

"_What are you listening to?_" Megan's earphone's resounded. The trackers.

"...Cullen," I sluuurshed at the end of my venti glass, "wants to see you... something about roads or something."

"Roads...Rhoads! Sorry Slade, I have to go."

"I'll walk you back," Slade offered.

"But you didn't... I've got it..." I said at Megan's look. I slapped a ten dollar bill and a nickle on the table, following the "He (she) who shows last, buys the lot" rule. "WAit up!"

AN: Two in one day! I'm on a roll! You're welcome! Shout outs: Kay, for letting us use her in futur chapters, Beth for naming the thing, Jenny for reviewing somany times, anyone that has a character based off them, and the authors them selves. We rock! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! It makes us happy!

"Reviews: Our anti-drug"


	12. Chapter 11: Terminated

Criminology Hight: Chapter 11: Terminated

Megan's POV***

We were sitting in Cullen's office; Devon, Cullen, and I. Cullen shook his head and looked back uo at us. "So explain to me what happened, one at a time, please."

Devon quickly stood up and I gasped at him. What ever happened to ladies first? "Mr. Cullen, sir, I would just like to say that she was misusing her powers and being extremely rude to me, _Doctor_ Devon Rhodes, and I thought that..."

"Sit down, Devon." Cullen interrupted. He looked at me and nodded. Taking that as a signal that it's my turn to complain, I stood up.

"Alright. So, Slade came in with acid to test and told me to give it to that dude over there, so I grabbed it and walked into the lav and he started screaming saying that I wasn't allowed to be there so I yelled back, threw him the acid, went to your desk, stole your marshmallows, and blew up at the gym," I said in one breath. Cullen looked surprised for a moment.

"You stole my Marshmallows? Wait, stay focused, Devon is this true?" He asked, crossing his arms and laying back in his leather spinny chair.

"Well, sir, you see, I, I never said, I mean, she, oh she," Devon said, pointing to me, Cullen stood up putting his fist on the desk and pointed to Devon. I turned to look at "Dr. Devon Rhodes, to see he had broken out in a cold sweat

"You, _Mr._ Devon Jonathin Rhodes, are ... sent down to welcoming committee for the rest of the time you are here." He handed Rhodes a file, and motioned for him to leave.

"For until I leave? In that case I will-"

"-Not violate your contract and stay?" Cullen said, pointedly. Rhodes grumbled and started to leave. As he passed me, I smirked.

"Jonathin?" He rolled his eyes and left.

)l()l()l()l()l()l()l(

CAITLINS POV******

I was working with the evidence box when a splash of color that I hadn't seen before caught my eye. What is this? It was a polaroid picture of a small girl on a tree swing. I flipped it over to the back. Written in red sharpie were the words 'I'm so sorry, Kaylee'. Hmm, the girl in the picture looks a little like my friend... Kaylee... OMG!

I grabbed the picture and ran into the metal door. Ignoring the pain that shot through my head, I ran into the computer lab. "PETER!"

He jumped out of his seat and ran over to me. He grabbed my shoulders and stared into my eyes with a worried look. "What is it? What happened? Are you okay?" He looked over my shoulder. I shoved the picture in his face.

"Scan this."

"Why?"

"Just scan this!" He picked up a laytex glove and used it to position the photo on the scanner, careful not to leave fingerprints. Goiunt to his computer, he turned it on a pressed the green button. Numbers flashed on the screen, some changing, all in a Bianaric Code.

I WILL FIND YOU AGAIN, It came up with. Peter looked to me. "Where did you got this?" I grabbed his keyboard and hit a few keys. It brought up an aging facial recognition program: High School edition. The girl's face morphed into an all too familiar one. Highschool pictures flooded by. My heart beated at a mile a minute. It finally stopped and I looked at the age, birthdate, and other details before looking at the name. Kaylee Butler. "No!" I screamed, grabbing the picture and running out of the room, multiple pairs of feet chasing after me. I felt someone grab my arm and spin me around when I was within three feet of the exit doors. The hands locked me in a vice grip.

"Release her!" I heard Peter scream behind me. "She is not a suspect, she works here." The hands let me go and I fell to my knees, crawling to the wall, picture still in my hand, I curled into a ball, my back against Peter's desk. He knelt in front of me, and lifted my chin, forcing me to look him in the eye. "Where did you get this picture?" He asked again.

The look in his eye was so feirce and demanding, I found my self answering him. "I-I found it in the Evidence box. Peter, I know her. She's my best friend!" HE pulled me in a hug and I burried my head in his chest. Moments later, I found myself being lifted from the ground. I wrapped my arms around Peter's neck and curve of his shoulder and neck.

"Hey."

"Hmf?"

"Ice cream?"

)l()l()l()l()l()l()l(

A/N: Short, but hey, At least I updated. Enjoy the multitude of drama this chapter held. I swear the next chapter is faster... Our updating is going to slow down, because we finnaly are almost caught up with what we've written. Reviews are my caffine, and I am very tired now. 11 chapters, 800 hits and only 20 reviews? Thats about two reviews per chapter and one review for every fourty hits, That's wimpy. Do the math...

Feed the Monster vvv


	13. Chapter 12: Stalkers

Criminology High: Chapter 12: Stalkers

Disclaimer: I've E-mailed, Called, Texted, Visited, and even flown a blimp over the owners of NCIS and Bones, but they won't Relinquish the rights of their franchises.

CAITLINS POV*****

After telling everyone about the picture, we headed out.

The table in front of us held a laptop, the picture, and two bowls of Ice cream. I had an orange bowl of mint chocolate chip, my favorite. Peter had rocky road in a green bowl, half gone. He was sucking on his spoon while typing with one hand.

The Ice Cream had thawed to the point that it was really soft, but not melted, yet. Peter looked up at me, doing a double take. He stared at me . He set his spoon back in his bowl, still looking at me.

He leaned in and whispered, "You... uh... have Ice cream on ...your lip..." He kept leaning in, closer, closer, I closed my eyes.

'DING!' the bell on the door chimed, bringing in the laughter from girls. I shot back in my seat, wiping my lips.

"Hey Caitlin! Peter!" Kyrah swung a chair by the table and sat on it backwards, falling out of it. She stood up, turned the chair around and sat down. Kaylee Butler slipped into the booth next to me. Megan grabbed a chair, and sat next to Kyrah, proving that she can sit backwards.

"So, what's up?" Peter blushed and ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up.

"Uh, not much. You must be the real Kaylee Butler," He pointed to her.

Kaylee Whispered to me: "Who's the COD?" She was referring to the 'Creepy Older Dude.'

"He's not that much older. He's my _working_ partner, Peter Parker," I whispered. She grinned at my alliteration.

"Um, hey?" She picked up the photograph. "Where'd you get this?" Everyone wanted to know, I guess. _Where had I gotten it?_

"Evidence... It must've been in the vic's pocket."

"Vic? As in VICTIM? What is going on here?" The four of us inhaled sharply. No one wanted to answer Kaylee. Caitlin finally did.

"Uh, Peter can explain better than I can..."

"Megan's the one that's _officially_ on the case, I'm just the Hacker..." Megan inhaled deeply.

"As you can see... Kyrah can explain it better..." Kyrah ground her teeth and glared at Megan.

" I suppose you wouldn't believer we're in the...the..." She prompted us.

"Book club."

KYRAH'S POV*****

"Book club?" Kaylee asked with a confused look. I wince as I answer her.

"Yeah, it's only for people who HATE books." Kaylee studied everyone's expressions, and a smile creeps up on her face.

"Cool!" She screams reeling in the attention from anyone in the shop.

"I need to uh...uh... GO TO THE BATHROOM!" Megan hollered.

"Then go," Peter said, a little annoyed that she had screamed it.

"Hey guys... come with me..." She looks frantic, and I look around the shop, wondering what could made made Megan stutter.

"Eww, no!" Caitlin says as my eyes meet with two figures standing across the street with tan cloaks, hats, and dark sunglasses, looking through the storefront, directly at us.

"Uh, yeah, come on guys." I said a little too quickly, standing up and ignoring the crash of the chair to the floor.

Caitlin looked at me in horror and looked out the window. Her eyes widen and she stands up, grabbing Kaylee. "Okay, lets go, come on, Kay!" The four of us bolted to the bathroom.

PETERS POV*****

I watched the girls run off to the bathroom, wondering why Caity freaked out when she looked out the window. I turned around. Outside, were two figures that I vaguely recognized. I stood up and slid out of the booth. Walking up to the figures, I ripped off their sunglasses.

"Are you two IDIOTS?" I scream as Shaun and Slade stood before me. "You scared the crap out of the girls!" Slade grabbed his sunglasses back and put them on. " I saw that, Peter." Shaun grabbed his glasses and I crossed my arms. "They thought you guy's were going to abduct Kaylee or something," I said, trying to calm my angered voice. Just then, the door bells go off behind me, and I turn around.

CAITLINS POV******

I locked us in the bathroom and turned my back to the door, slowly sliding to the floor.

"What's going on?" Kaylee asked.

"Megan has to pee." Kyrah replies, shoving Megan into a stall and tossing her a waterbottle.

Looking at Megan's confused face, Kyrah slammed the stall door. Counting to one hundred in my head, I heard the water run from the bottle into the toilet. Megan came out and washed her hands, tossing the empty waterbottle in the recycle bin. I unlocked the door, and we stepped outside.

Walking back to the table, we notice Peter is gone, and his laptop shut. Looking out the window, I saw him. His back was turned to me, and over his shoulder, I saw Kaylee's stalkers. I snapped my fingers three times, the signal for "Get ready to read my hands". I signed to quickly for Kaylee to read: 'Peter is with the stalkers, we need to get Kay out of here.' The girls turned to see and a look of betrayal and surprise cross their eyes.

'I have a plan' Megan signed. Oh, this has to be good, I thought. She grabbed five sheets of paper from a nearby journalist, and whipped out a pen (all the while ignoring his annoyance). Writing a mile a minute, she handed me and Kyrah two pieces of paper. One with a short paragraph explaining her plan, and the other saying 'I want Cookie Dough Ice cream before we leave :) ' .

As Megan bought her cone, I remembered the plan. 'Tell Kay that the boys want to play City Tag and trade her off between us so the stalkers get confused. Meet in the Victoria's Secret bathroom in the mall in an hour."

"Come on Kaylee," Megan said, pulling her by her forearm.

"Where are we going?" Time to put the plan into action.

"The boy's sent me a text saying that they were better than us, so I challenged them to a game of city tag. We just run around and hope they, or anyone else playing, can't find us." I explained. Megan held her thumbs up, mouthing 'Nice touch.' to me.

"Well, where to first?"

A/N: Phew, for some reason that took me forever to type! We have officially hit the end of our written parts. Updates will be slow. The next chapter will only be up when we get 27 reviews. No less, more is accepted. Please, the authors of this book are in dire need of help, do your part and review to help them and make every reader of their story happy... thank you.

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	14. Chapter 13: Tag in the City

"Well, where to first?" I asked as we ran down the street to the bus stop. Megan jumped over a bush and knelt behind it so that the boys couldn't see her.

"Come on Kaylee hide!" she said. I walked around the bush and sat down. A few seconds later, 3 pairs of footsteps stopped in front of the bush.

"Where are they?"f

"I don't know; the bus isn't here yet so they couldn't have got on."

I didn't recognize the voices but apparently Megan did because her eyes widened and she whipped out her phone typing fast and hitting send, then grabbing my hand and dragging me to the park behind the bush.

Megan was pacing and I climbed the jungle gym, going down the slide I asked "So, how do you know these guys?"

Megan stopped. "Uhhh, we met at summer school." She said, it sounded like a question. I was about to consult her on her obvious lie when her cell phone buzzed and a black car pulled up. "CRAP!" She screeched as the back doors opened and two boys climbed out. Megan grabbed my hand and started running back to the bus stop where a random bus was about to leave. Turning around I saw that the boys were following us and catching up quickly. Megan pushed me in front of her and knocked over the trashcan we were passing tripping one of the boys and stopping the other one momentarily. I jumped on the bus and Megan slid in just as the doors were closing.

Turning around I saw the boys staring at the retreating bus for approximately 10 seconds and then bolt towards the car they arrived in. I sat down and stared out the window as Megan conference called Caitlin and Kyrah. "It's them… no, the other them… yes, that them… I know right! How could they! I thought we could trust them. Wait where are you? OK we will be right there." Megan said into her phone, hanging it up. The bus pulled up to a hospital and Megan stood up. "This is our stop."

"Why are we getting off here?" I asked as Megan walked to the front doors.

"Because we are meeting Kyrah, well, you are anyway." She said jumping off the last step to the cracked cement below her.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I didn't get a reply as we walked into the hospital and found Kyrah in the waiting room.

"We don't have long." Megan told Kyrah. "They saw us jump on the bus and started to follow us in what looked like a certain certified car. So I'm going to start running around changing transits and all to mess with them. Peter wasn't with them though so be careful, he could be anywhere." With that she turned and ran out the automatic door leaving me with Kyrah and absolutely no clue what they were talking about.

"Okay, what is this all about?" I ask. Kyrah's widen as she looks at me.

"We told you, the boys dared us to play city tag." She replies looking away.

"NO, city tag is running around the mall hiding from each other, not jumping over bushes, pushing over trash cans and barley making busses." I glare at her.

Kyrah sighs "We are playing extreme city tag..."

I roll my eyes but have no time to contradict what she is saying because her eyes widen as she looks over my shoulder. Kyrah grabs my arm and pulls me into the nearest room which happens to be a supply closet. She quickly turns around letting go of my arm sending me to the ground as she slams and locks the door.

"I swear it, I get stabbed by the needle in a shot and get sick, I'm going to kill you." I say as I stand up. Kyrah looks around and I can almost see the light above her head turn on as she grabs something and throws it at me. Looking down I see that it is an apron with red and white stripes.

"Put it on, hurry." She says, tying the apron's string behind her back and I do the same. "We're going to go 'under cover'" I smirk and dark look shades over our eyes as we quietly slip out of the room.

Running to the first sick person we see, we grab his hand. It was an old man lying in a bed being transferred to a different room. "Oh, poor thing!" We coo as we follow him around the corner.

"Ah, it's nice that they still have candy strippers around. You know, in my day, there were little girls that..." I dozed out of the conversation as we headed to the front of the hospital, ducking my head as we passed a blond haired boy I guessed was also playing city tag. Looking up I saw Kyrah mouth something 'that's him!' As soon as we rounded the corner and were out of sight from the boy, we sprinted to the back door. Shoving it open, I pushed it back closed as Kyrah put her hands on her knees and panted. I slid down the door and stared up at Kyrah. We just stared and out of no were, we burst out laughing. I got up and walked over to her just as her phone rang. Looking over her shoulder I saw it was from some guy named Shawn. _You can't hide forever, we'll find you. _

Creep, I thought as Kyrah typed her reply. _Maybe not, but us girls sure know how to stall ;)_

The moment the message was sent, Kyrah pressed 2 and send, speed dial. She put the phone to her ear, and then turned on speaker. I could hear the ringing on the other end and then a girl's voice, Caitlin's. "Hello?"

"C, it's K, I have the cougar and the hunter's are in the jungle, I repeat, I have the cougar and the hunters are in the jungle." I looked at Kyrah curiously and Caitlin spoke up.

"I have no idea what that means." She asked my unspoken question. Kyrah sighed.

"Where are you, I have Kaylee and the boys are close." Oh, I guess I'm 'cougar'. That's not weird at all.

"I'm at the science museum." She says, I look at Kyrah and we both roll our eyes, of course Caitlin would be at the science museum.

"Alright, we're on our way." She says, about to hang up.

"WAIT, where is Megan?" She asks

"I really don't know. She is running along the bus transit trying to shake the boys. I just hope she doesn't fall asleep and wake up in Canada." I laugh because I can see Megan doing that.

"Alright, hurry up and don't let them catch you!" She replies, hanging up.

"Apparently nobody says goodbye anymore." I tell Kyrah as she pulls me to a bus stop a few blocks down. "Why are we here, there was a bus stop right in front of the hospital."

Kyrah looks around. "Were here so when Peter walks out, he doesn't see us." Peter must be the blond boy from the lobby, I think as Kyrah pulled me onto a bus.

Caitlin's POV

I was walking down the Madame Curie exhibit when a phone rang. Looking around, I was trying to find the stupid person who forgot to put their cell on silent to see that everyone was staring at me. I blushed and looked down quickly grabbing my phone and answering, running out of the room to the gardens outside. Looking down, I saw that it was Kyrah. Sighing I answered. "Hello?"

"C, it's K, I have the cougar and the hunter's are in the jungle, I repeat, I have the cougar and the hunters are in the jungle." Looking at the phone in confusion, I made sure that I was talking to Kyrah.

"I have no idea what that means." I say as I walk passed a short man in a yellow jacket with his collar up and his top hat shading his face. Ignoring him, I sat down on the bench as far away from the mysterious man as I could.

I heard Kyrah sigh before she answered. "Where are you, I have Kaylee and the boys are close." Oh, I get it now. The man next to me shifted as if he could hear my conversation and was uncomfortable with the topic. He crossed his arms and turned away from me, leaning back so his head was closer. Eyeing him, I turned away and scooted to the edge of the bench.

"I'm at the science museum." I could almost see her roll her eyes.

"Alright, we're on our way." She says and I press the red phone stopping the call. Turning to the man I see him watching me.

Scowling I ask him. "Can I help you with something?" Shaking his head he pulls up his collar and sinks into the bench, pushing up the dark sunglasses I didn't notice he had. Rolling my eyes I got up and walked away, heading for the front doors so I could meet Kaylee when she arrived.

As I was leaving, I heard the man whip out his cell phone and dial someone. "HEY!" a familiar voice whispered. My eyes widened as I quickly jumped behind a wall. With my back to it I listened into the conversation. "I found one... No she's alone but two others are coming... I don't know who but Caitlin is here... We're at the science museum... Alright Shawn, see you in a minute. Call Peter and tell him to meet us here, we'll finish this." We'll finish this, what does that mean? I ask myself as I run into the girl's bathroom to call Kyrah and stop our plans.

Running into the bathroom I slam a stall door and grab my phone and dial Kyrah's number. I hear it ringing and bounce around chanting "come on, come on, come on!" She answers the phone will a bell like tone.

"Hello?"

"KYRAH, GET OFF THE BUS RIGHT NOW, SLADE IS HERE AND HE HEARD OUR CONVERSATION AND HE CALLED THE BOYS, THEY ARE COMING!" I say almost cutting her off.

"WHAT?" I can hear Kaylee in the background asking what the matter was.

"You and the boys are arriving in the same location and if you keep on your way here, then we will be caught. You won't believe what Slade said on the phone to Shawn."

I could hear Kyrah sigh for the millionth time today. "What did he say?" She asked, exasperated.

"He said to call Peter and meet us at the museum where they will 'finish this.'" I could hear a screeching sound and many people grunting.

"Come on Kaylee, let's go!"

From the background I could hear Kaylee asking what was going on. Ignoring her, she went back to talking to me. "We are at the Fiesta mall, walk past Slade and repeat after me."

"Ok, hold on." I tell her, walking out of the bathroom to find him. When I find him I tell her to continue.

"Repeat after me." She tells me to say a bunch of lines as I walk past him.

"Yeah, I'll meet you outside. You will be here in a few minutes? Alright, I'll meet you outside. Ok, hold on, let me get my backpack, I left it in the bathroom. Alright, see you in a minute." I say, copying her every word. Turning around I walk past him again and walk back to the bathroom walking in and hanging up the phone. I run over to the bathroom window and mentally measure the width to see if I can slip through. Nodding, I look around trying to find something to bust myself up to the window to slip out. Spotting a garbage can filled with paper towels, I run and grab it, dumping all of the paper towels on the ground, I go back to the wall and turn it over. Using it as a step stool, I open the window and shimmy out.

Wiping the dirt off of my pants, I pull out my phone and dial back Kyrah. "Ok, I'm out. I will meet you at the mall at the Dairy Queen." I say running over the back lawn to the street behind the museum and run. Stopping at the bus stop, I look around, spotting a yellow jacket, I double take. CRAP! It's SLADE! Sprinting off, I turn the corner and see a carnival. Perfect. Running to the door I turn around and see Slade a few yards away. My eyes widen as I throw a five dollar bill at the cashier and rip the wrist band out of his hand. Running in I tear the paper covering the adhesive off with my teeth and put it on, running into a little boy with cotton candy in his hand.

"Hey!" He screams as I run passed. Seeing the room of mirrors I run in. Looking around I feel dizzy, a headache coming on. Footsteps echo behind me and I look up. Seeing the top of the mirrors, I grip the rubber and start to walk, soon finding the end of the room, I run out, leaving the footsteps behind me.

Looking around I see the floor coming closer and my knees meet the ground. Pulling out my phone, I manage, after a few minutes, to text Megan.

_'HELP, AT CARNIVAL. SLADE CHASING ME.' _I don't have to wait long before she answers

_'fYOU WENT INTO THE HOUSE OF MIRRORS DIDN'T YOU? I'M ON MY WAY, HANG ON AND STAY OUT OF SIGHT!'_

I stand up and put my hand on the wall, walking myself to the back of the building. As soon as I'm behind the mirror cave, I hear someone stumble out. "Caitlin? Where are you? Come on, ugh, my head hurts." Keeping my breathing down, I slide back into the shadows and watch him pass by me. Just as he is out of hearing range, my phone beeps. Megan.

_'Alright, I'm here, where are you?'_

_'Behind the evil house.' _I reply, putting my phone down. Someone taps my shoulder and I jump, looking at the person. Megan grabs my upper arm and hoists me up.

"Come on." She said. She pulled me toward the exit onto a bus and we sat down in the back. "What is Slade wearing?" She asks.

"Yellow jacket." She looks out her window as my phone buzzes in my pocket. Ignoring it, I take a deep breath and close my eyes. Stupid mirror room, always making me dizzy. As the bus lurches forward, I tap Megan on the shoulder. She looks at me in question. "Kyrah and Kaylee are at the Fiesta mall, we need to meet them at Dairy Queen." Megan nods her head and pulls out her phone, calling Kyrah.

About an hour later we pull up to the crosswalk in front of the Fiesta Mall. Megan and I jump out and watch as the bus pulls away, dissapearing it the distance of visable heat waves. Looking both ways, we run across the street and sprint towards Dairy Queen. As we open the door, a rush of cold air greets us and we look around, searching for the others. Seeing Kaylee sauntering into the bathroom i look to the table closest to see Kyrah with the hood of her oversized jacket shading her face. How she could wear a jacket in 110 degree weather, i will never know.

Walking to the order counter, i got three bowls of cookie dough ice cream and a sunday with extra cherries. Paying the kid at the counter, i shudder as his hand touches mine and he winks as he takes the cash from me. _Note to self, never hand money to a dude, drop it on the counter._ Walking away after i hear him say he will give me my order at our table, i see Kaylee back from the bathroom. "Hey guys, i ordered everyone ice cream!"

"What did you get me?" The three of them asked in unition.

"Three Cookie Dough ice creams and a sunday with extra cherries. For me i got a perverted dude taking my order and touching me, say he wil 'bring the order to me'." I say, shivering again. Just as i finished, the pimple-faced kid that took the order walks up with a blue face.

"Here you go ladies!" He says, squating in front of me. His voice sounded strained, like he was a small girl trying to sound manly. He dropped the tray on the table. Winking at me one last time, he strutted back behind the counter where an angry line had formed.

"OMG, was he trying to puff out his chest?" Kyrah asked.

"I thought he was holding in his bad breath! And what was with the voice? He sounded like Fred Figglehorn, that guy on Youtube?" Megan replied, making everyone at the table fall into a laughing fit.

After devouring most of our ice cream and finishing off the cherries, we desided to go for a walk through the mall. Grabbing our cups and out little red spoons, we walked towards the door. "Come back soon!" The kid at the counter screamed to us, when the door was closing, he added "I love you." Chocking on the spoon in my mouth, i gasped for air. I'm quite sure Megan and Kyrah enjoyed smacking me on the back, trying to get me to breath. When we were around the corner and i was breathing somewhat normally, we fell to the ground laughing.

"OMG what was that?" Kaylee said, clutching her stomach and rolling on the floor.

"I don't know but it was hilarious." Kyrah gasped. Her laughing suddenly stopped and i looked up to see what was wrong, hitting Megan's arm she gasped.

"Hey!" Not even looking at her, i pointed to the black van in the parking lot. The same van issued to Special Agents, and by the look on Megan's face, the same one that found her at the park. Quickly grabbing Kaylee from the floor, we turned around and ran. Hearing an engine behind us turn on and tires quickly squeel to life, we pushed ourselves farther and sprinted into a nearby store. Macy's, i groaned, i hated this store.

Following the girls, we ran into the changing rooms in the 'delicits' section, knowing that no guy in their right mind would come in there. Out of no where, Kyrah started to whisper scream at us. "Guys! Turn your phones on silent, i have a gut feeling!" Since we all trusted her gut feelings, we all followed her orders, not moments after, the three issued phones flashed with an incoming call. The boys. If we had left our phones with volume, the boys would have found us.

"How did you..." Megan and i quickly jumped onto Kaylee, covering her mouth with our hands shushing her. We knew this wasn't over yet, as if on que, footsteps echoed through the empty dressingroom.

A/N: Love it? Hate it? Should we continue or stop? You don't have to have an account to review, just the sooner you review, the sooner we know if we need to continue or not...

A/N2: This story just hit 1000 hits, as of 6/22/2010! Thanks to all our readers!


	15. Chapter 14: The truth comes out

[Disclaimer: We are not at all close to owning Bones or NCIS]

"They're not in here!" Slade's voice echoed out. We could hear his shoes squeak and he turned around. Just then another person came in.

"We have to find them, Cullen would kill us if he found out we lost them! I can't lose Megan!" Slade screamed. I stifled a laugh at the blush illuminating from Megan's face but my laugh stopped as another pair of footsteps entered.

"Yeah, and I can't lose Caity and Shaun can't lose Kyrah." Peter replied.

"Dude, did you just call her Caity?" Shaun asked

"Yeah, it's my nickname for her."

"And you've called her that in front of her?"

"Yes, why?"

"Why are you not dead yet?" Slade screamed.

"What do you mean?" I could almost hear the confused look on his face.

"If we called her Caity, I'm quite sure that she would kick our butts through Seattle and over the Canadian border!" Shaun piped in.

"Have you ever tried?"

"No" Slade and Shaun answered at the same time.

"She's not as violent as you think guys, I mean, she can be sweet." My eyes widened and I looked to the door of the stall we all were hiding in.

"Dude, she slapped you that fist time in the ice cream shop. You called her insane and messed up." I growled but Megan signed for me to shut up.

"Yeah, but we had that dude running the background check on Megan and Caitlin so..." I couldn't take it anymore. Looking at Megan, she stood up with me. Walking to the wall of the dressing room, Megan signed to Kyrah that they need to sit on the bench and pick up their feet so if the boys look under the door they won't know anyone is there, and we slid to the next stall. Bursting out of the door the boys screamed like little girls.

"YOU DID WHAT? WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU DO THAT?" I screamed at them, Megan joined in.

"OUR PAST IS THE PAST FOR A REASON! WHAT DID YOU IDIOTS FIND?" She screamed staring directly at Slade while my sight flickered between Peter and Shaun.

Without a waver in his voice, Peter spoke up directly to me, basically ignoring Megan's presence. "We know that you and Megan were kidnapped when you were playing at the park. How old were you?" He stared directly into my eyes and the flashbacks came back.

_"Megan! Come back here!"_

_"No way! I don't wanna be it!"_

_"Come on! You gotta be it! It's only you and me here!" Eight year old Megan and I screamed as we chased each other around the playground at the park. We were tired of the swings so we decided to play tag. I was planned to have a sleepover at her house, so we went to the park. A black car pulled up to the side of the road and a man got out. We ignored him and continued to chase each other. The side of the car door opened and two more men climbed out. I felt a hand grab my arm and I screamed, looking at Megan, I saw that the other man that got out had grabbed her. Tears running down our faces and a mirrored look of fear in our eyes, we knew this wasn't going to be good as we were tied with duct tape and thrown in the back of the van, the screeching tires echoing throughout the silent neighborhood. I looked over and Megan had hand-printed bruises on her forearm._

Feeling a hand grab me, I freaked out and gasped, scrambling backwards until my back hit the wall_. _Looking up I saw Peter with his hand reaching for me, a scared look on his face.

Megan's POV

Peter was questioning Caitlin about the day we were kidnapped and I knew something was going to happen. He stared directly into her eyes and asked her how old we were when it happened. Caitlin's eyes unfocused and I knew she was thinking about that day. I was about to run to her when someone grabbed my arms. Screaming on the top of my lungs, I screamed "NO!" as I fought the person holding me back. Turning around, about to punch the person, I saw Slade behind, holding me back while at the same time, pulling me towards him, shushing me. I turned around to see Peter grabbing Caitlin. Eyes widening, he stumbled backwards, her back hit the wall and she slid down. Fighting off Slade again, I ran to her, sliding on my knees as soon as I was a few feet away.

_This can't be happening, _I thought _not again._ Looking to Peter, I stood up. "What is wrong with you? Why did you bring it back up? We still have nightmares about them, they were just dying down and you had to bring it back up?" Peter looked shocked. Turning around, I pulled Caitlin up by the arm and pulled her out of the dressing room through the store as he mumbled his apologies.

"Wait up!" The boys called as they chased us. I planned to get them to follow us, but not for them to bring back memories that scared us.

As soon as they were all out of the dressing room, I turned around. "Just leave us alone! You've ruined our nights for the next two years, now you want to make us afraid of going outside and being alone? Just, go away." I turned toward the doors and called my mom, knowing that she was going to need to sign us up for group sessions again and that there would be one more person taking up a bed in the house and two less mouths to feed every other week. As soon as I called and my voice broke, she knew what was wrong, hanging up immediately, I knew she was calling Dr. Gordon Gordon, the only psychologist Caitlin and I would talk to.

This was routine, Caitlin would come to my house for a full week sleepover and then I would go to her house, switching houses every week, we never had much hunger after the nightmares and the only thing that seemed to calm us was the other. Looking out the store window, I waited to see my mom's car pull up. "There you are!" A voice called behind us making Caitlin and I jump and turn around. Kyrah and Kaylee ran up to us with worried looks on their faces. Looking between the two of us, Kyrah sighed. "Whose house first?"

"Mine, and you better run." I say as I see the boys quickly advancing toward us.

"I don't think so."Kyrah says smirking

"What?"

"We're driving, your car just pulled up."

Turning around, I see my mom getting out of the car. Smiling, I grab Caitlin and Kaylee and head toward the car in a full sprint, Kyrah following closely behind. The boys were falling behind and by the time they had gotten to the front doors, we were already in the car, doors locked, and driving off.

Kyrah's POV

"Whew, I now know EXACTLY why I'm not a field agent," I said, catching my breath as we all twisted around to look through the back window. The van swung into view.

"Are we going back to the lab?'Cause I left my bag there, and I need I-" Caitlin started.

"Yes," grumbled whoever was driving. I didn't care. As long as I would get my three spiral notebooks back, I was happy. Two held the science fiction 'novels' I'm writing, the third I wrote my notes for pathology in. We sat in silence, until:

"What lab?" I totally forgot about the 'book club'.

"Well, the bo-"

"Kyrah, shut up," Megan said, silencing me.

"Kaylee, give us some time to cool down. We'll explain everything to Cullen and you when we get there." A little while later, the vehicle rolled to a stop in front of the FBI building.

"We'll talk later, Megan," her mom said, unlocking the doors so we could get out. We walked in to the entrance-slash-lobby. A fountain that was supposed to be calming, splashed menacingly in the corner, and dying potted plants adorned every surface. I scanned my card to get into the elevator.

"I'll be downstairs. I'll meet you in Cullen's in ten?" They nodded and I hit the 'Morgue' button on the wall.

-X-

"Where did I leave them?" I paced around the autopsy room. "Come on, think! Where did you set them down? Under the case file! No. In the biohazard container? No." I lifted all the papers on the desk. I uncovered nothing. Sure, I had all my files backed up on my thumb drive, and the internet, but I NEEDED my written copies.

"Talking to yourself? Looking for these?" Shaun sauntered in, carrying my notebooks. He set them down on the sheet covering a cadaver. I inhaled deeply. Who would dare touch my books?

"Shaun, I thought we left you at the mall."

"Knew you wouldn't leave without- these." He pointed to the books.

"Where'd you find them?"

"In here, by the way, I feel the character of Nat is too clingy to his past life and-"

"You didn't!" I warned

"You are an exceptional author, I might add."

"Give me those!"

"And if I say no...?" I searched around the desk silently. I found a pair of keys that looked familiar. It had one key on it, a scan card for the forensics platform, and _a flash drive. _I whipped out the laptop and plugged it in.

"Lets see... Removable drive F... aha! Shaun Harris! Let's see... what can I learn about my co-worker today... What have we here! An automatic password recovery system! Open... scroll down... FACEBOOK! E-mail: ShauntheSheep, really, you're that lame? Password... Wow Shaun. Wow." I yanked the drive out of the computer. Here you go," I dropped it in his hand and slid my books out from under it. I started to walk out.

"I-I didn't mean you... I- uh- meant Doctor Saroyan!"

"Really, Shaun? MorgueChick27. Either I just Hacked your sister's account, or you are about to get hurt *really* bad... Don't make me sic Caity on you!"

"You call her Caity? Peter does too, small worldandIprobablyshouldn'thavesaidthat..."

I continued walking out, writing in the back of my book: Shaun the Sheep freemail Password: MorgueChick27

I was about to get some good blackmail material!

-x-

Walking into the lobby, I saw Kaylee with her arms crossed, foot tapping impatiently, yelling at some poor girl at the front desk. Sneaking up behind her I listened into the conversation. "Mrs., I have no clue where three girls went, I only answer the phones, I don't receive updates!"

"I don't care! Find out where they went or I swear..." I thought this was a good time to intervene.

"Hey, Kay what are you doing." She turned to look at me; I could almost see steam coming from her ears.

"You three abandoned me in the lobby and some dude with a freaky tie and a suit comes up to me, grabbed my arm and throws me into an interrogation room! WHAT IS GOING ON?" Caitlin, Megan, and I had planned out what to tell her if something happens so I just read the script off by memory.

"My uncle is an agent here and agreed to get his boss to give Megan, Caitlin, and I a tour since we wanted to work Forensics here in the future. We left some stuff here so we came back to pick it up." I replied, adding the last part.

"What about the dude who grabbed me and shoved me in a room with no T.V.?" I giggled, slapping the desk to get the girls attention, I told her to page down Booth. Moments later he walked in. Looking at Kaylee glaring at him, I called him over.

"Seeley, did you put Kaylee into an interrogation room without giving her chance to explain anything?"

He glanced and me and replied. "Yes, but...OW!" I interrupted his excuse by smacking the back of his head.

"APOLOGIZE! NOW!"

"But," I gave him the do it or I will hurt you glare and he sighed, slouching over, I knew I had won; I had the victory smile on my face to prove it.

"Sorry Kaylee, it was a complete misunderstanding, please forgive me?" He was a gentleman, even when he did something wrong.

"It's ok, I forgive you." Kaylee told him, patting his spiky hair.

"Come on, I think I have an idea of where the girls are," I said, dragging her to the elevator.

-X-

I hit the Morgue button again, this time taking a left turn out of it instead of right. We entered a door and found Megan blaring some sort of music and pushing buttons on a machine.

"Hey, my part of the tour stopped here, and I think I left an analysis of... The school's lunch here!" I saw her pick up a vile, look into it, read the label, and pull a face that said "I am so busted if I take this, distract Kaylee."

"Meet us in the lobby, we'll go find Caitlin." We walked to the elevator. I hit the up button and we waited. It slowed to a stop. Slade rushed out, leaving Peter inside.

"Is Megan back there?"

"Uh, yeah, but we're leaving," I said, distracting Kaylee with her off center visitor's badge. We stepped in. Before the doors closed, however, Peter stuck his hand out.

"Shaun, get out here, Cullen called us up!" Shaun turned the corner and lept into the elevator just as the door closed. It was an awkward ride to the forensics platform. Peter stood in one corner, staring at the flashing buttons on the wall. Shaun chose _this_ moment to stand extra close to me. I rolled my shoulders uncomfortably. Turning around to face him, I mouthed his password and adopted an evil glint in my eye. He took a step backwards and I nodded, thank you. The doors parted and Kaylee and I ran out. She jogged onto the platform. A loud ring sounded, silenced by me sneakily swiping a card in the reader.

"Kee! Have you seen my bag? I can't find it." She was the only one allowed to use that nick-name on me, not even Megan; we still don't understand how that played out, maybe one of our sugar drunken sleepovers? Snapping out of my thoughts, I helped her look around.

"What were you doing before we met you and Peter at the ice cream place?" She looked around, remembering something. Her eyes kept flickering to Kaylee, then the Computer office.

"Evidence!" She lept up and went to am empty table, underneath was the evidence box. She pulled her bag out of it. "Someone must have cleaned up after I left, putting my bag in it." I rolled my eyes and turned around just as Megan stepped up on the platform, she had gotten her cast taken off the day before and it was now replaced with a beautiful walking boot, she was thrilled.

"Hey guys, it's getting late and my mom is getting impatient for me and Caity. We have to go. Now." I knew what she meant, if she was out late during the nightmares and it was after 8, she would not leave or move at that, neither would Caitlin, her mom wanted to get them home before 6 and it was 5:30 at the moment.

"Why are we leaving? It's only 5:30." Kaylee knew about the kidnapping, but she didn't know about the nightmares and everything that came with it which would be the two of them waking up screaming or one waking up screaming, the other crying because of the screaming. When one of their moms calms them down finally, they start screaming and crying again because the doorbell rings as an effect of one of their neighbors calling the police. The cops, by now I'm sure, recognize the address and ignore the call because of how long it's been going on.

"Because Megan's mom doesn't like being out late." I explained to her, technically I wasn't lying.

"Whatever." Was her reply. We headed out to the car and Caitlin and Megan froze in front of the glass doors, looking outside I could see the reason. The sun had set early and it was almost dark. Looking around, I see a janitor, going over to him; I grab the light keys and turn on the building's porch lights, throwing the keys back to the dumbfounded man when I was through.

We sprinted to the car and Caitlin immediately locked the door as soon as everyone was in, Megan locking the other side. I was used to them doing this since I had known them during the kidnapping, but Kaylee, who had met them a year afterwards, had a confused look on her face. I sighed, giving her a 'we'll talk later' look.

Shaun's POV:

"Dude what just happened?" I asked as the girls flew from the elevator.

"I don't know. Did we ever find out why they ran around the city like that?" Slade asked; I nodded in agreement.

"You idiots were being...morons when you stood across the street in trench coats and sunglasses. It scared the crap out of them. What were you doing?" Peter looked like he was starting to get mad.

"Calm down, Peter. We figured out that Kaylee was being stalked, and-" Peter cut Slade short.

"How?"

"You, uh, didn't delete the search, man," I explained, "Pretty careless on your partandI'mgoingto stand over here." I backed against the wall.

"Shut up, Shaun. Slade, you were saying?"

"And we decided that we should, y'know, keep an eye on her now that her potential stalker is dead, someone had to have killed him." The elevator dinged, signaling its arrival, its doors parted, showing Cullen, arms crossed, taking advantage over the two inches he was taller than us.

"Sir, uh, we, uh-" Peter stuttered.

"Save it. Come in," He sent us to his office. We arranged ourselves in his chairs. Hard, plastic chairs. "I know what you did, boys, and I'm not pleased. You abused your powers and poked your noses in someone else's search. I should revoke my decision to include you in our system, but I won't," We all exhaled. Thank God they weren't firing us. "But, you will have to put in more time here. Let's say... four hours extra. Each week. Make sure you sign in and out. The lab closes at nine, but if you're already inside, you can stay as long as you need to. Now get out of my office."

)()()()()()()(

"Four extra hours! How does he expect us to add four hours to our schedules? We have to go to school and learn you know! He's insane!" Slade rambled on.

"Dude, shut up!" Peter screamed. "You've made my day a living nightmare! You made the girl of my dreams terrified of me and run off, you got me into trouble with Cullen, and now, I don't know what to do. It's taken me forever to find out what was wrong with her and when I finally find out and confront her about it, I suddenly turn into the devil's spawn!" He said counting off his fingers and sitting down on a bench.

"You're not the devil's child, Peter. She didn't say that." I say, trying to calm him down.

"No, but she might as well have." He put his head in his hands and sighed. "Why do I always do everything wrong?"

"HEY! I don't want to hear that! They loved you, if they didn't let you stay, where would you be? China?" Slade cut in, trying to calm him down.

"If they didn't let me stay, they would still be ALIVE!" He screamed, standing up and marching toward the door.

_His parents we're always a hard subject to talk about. You see, he had an uncle who was an alcoholic and a drug addict, he had lost his job and Peter's parents had let him stay at his house until he got on his feet again. Day after day, his uncle drank more and fought more. When Peter came home, there was always a bruise on his parents somewhere and they would always tell him that they fell or ran into something. As time went on, he started waking up in the middle of the night to hear his parents talking about running away._

_One day, a half day at school, Peter walked into the house to see his mother on the ground cowering under a very drunk Uncle Carlos with a broken bear bottle in his hand. He said that he would never forget the look in his mother's eyes as she screamed for him to run as fast as he could, as far away as he could. He didn't listen though, he ran to her when he felt a sharp pain in his side, knocking him to the ground. His six year old self stood up only to be punched back to the ground by his Uncle. He finally blacked out after many blows to his side and his mothers voice screaming in the distance, pleading for him to wake up._

_When he did finally wake up, his mother and father were frantically running around his room, packing everything in sight. They told him that it was time to leave and for him to go visit his grandmother, but he had refused. "I want to stay with you!" His little voice rang out, after much argument, his parent agreed to run away with him, but the door was kicked in just as they pulled out another suitcase._

_"Running away are we?" Carlos asked, an evil glint shone in his eye as he reached for something in the back of his pants. "I'll show you!" Pulling out a gun, he shot both his parents, killing them. Turning to little Peter, he glared. "You caused all of this, you don't deserve to live." With one last maniacal smile, Peter was shot in the shoulder, he could hear the sirens in the distance as he slowly bled out and the blackness succumbed him._

He always believed his uncle, and to this day, he still thinks that if he didn't refuse his parents and beg to stay, causing the to fight, they would have left before his uncle had gotten home. From the time he was found, he had been transferred from foster homes to houses for troubled teens, finally finding his home in Arizona with the Parker family. I had taken him over a year for him to talk to them because of every person that had left him, they each took a hit at his heart, crumbling it and forcing him to build walls around. It had taken so long for Slade and me to break it, and I was surprised how long it took for the girls to bust through.


	16. Chapter 15: 007

MEGAN'S POV*****

The second the car pulled into the garage, we flew into the house followed by Kyrah and Kaylee. We were already in my room by the time they made it in the house. My iPod playing softly in its dock, we chatted about this and that, careful to stay away from touchy subjects. At somewhere between six o'clock and nine o'clock we ordered pizza. One cheese, the other half pepperoni and half Hawaiian. When the doorbell rang, we all jumped. Kyrah ran for the door, clutching a twenty dollar bill. When she returned, she flopped the boxes on my desk.

"Did you see the Pizza Guy?" She grinned.

"No...?" We all answered questioningly.

"He had this interesting tattoo on the left, well, his right, side of his neck. It was like a hand print, but it had really long claws. He also had actual scrapes on his arms. I think he owns an iguana!"

"That's nice. Now eat your pizza." Caitlin said.

"Y'know, most people would say to their friends: 'Did you see the pizza guy? He was soooo hot!' But you, you're a special case, Kyrah." Kyrah signed thank you to Kaylee. We pulled pieces of pizza from the box. We ate in silence and I had this looming feeling that one of the 'touchy subjects' was about to be brought up. Kaylee broke the ice.

"You know those guys, the ones that were hanging out with Peter in the elevator. Do you know them?" We had two options. We could tell her that we rushed her around the city, hiding her from a sadistic stalker's stalker. Or we could tell her they went on the tour with us. Or we could tell her the actual truth of our ''schooling''. Exchanging eye contact with Caitlin and Kyrah, I mentally told them to 'keep up the ruse'.

"Remember that tour we were on? They were on a tour, too. Peter was with the Anthropology department, Shaun with the Pathology department, and Slade with the Agent dispatch department. Our tour kind of caught up to them, and mixed together."

"Oh. Okay then. Do you have any Parmesan Cheese?"

)()()()()()()()()(

"ARGH! NO, no, NO, STOP!"

"Caitlin...Shu-shu-shut uh-up!"

"I'm awake!"

"You weren't five minutes ago."

"I wasn't? Oh. Well, look at that, you woke the others up. Nice."

"You did with your annoying screeching."

"You did with your groggy stuttering!"

"Stop fighting like an annoyed married couple!"

"We are not fighting like a married couple!"

"We are not fighting like a married couple!"

"Shut it! I'm not supposed to wake up for another two hours."

"Hm. Five thirty. Right on time."

"Caitlin, was it a _nightmare_."

"Yeah, Megan. I know you had one too."

"I'm going back to sleep."

"You do that, Kaylee."

"Megan, where's your computer."

"Go back to sleep, Kyrah."

"I got enough sleep."

"Four hours is not enough sleep."

"Yes it is."

"No it-"

"Shut up, guys."

)()()()()()()()(

Caitlin woke me up the next morning, with a bowl of fruit loops in her hand. "You okay? You slept like a log after the little episode..." She leaned back as I rubbed my eyes, sitting up.

"No, of course not." Time for school, but the clock said 10:23. "We're late for school!" I threw the covers of my bed, the pads of my feet thudding on the wood of my bedroom.

"It's Saturday. Kyrah went home to do her chores, and Kaylee is trying to forget yesterday..." She handed me the bowl as I sat back on my bed, the comforter folded into a triangle.

"Then how did you sleep?" I asked just to make conversation, but I already knew the answer from the dark circles under her eyes.

"You really have to ask?" She sighed and sat back down on her air mattress. She had two bed sets, one for her house, and one for here. Carrying stuff around every week was too hard to do now. Her bowl was empty save the sugar at the bottom from her cereal, and was behind the mattress.

"Are you insane? You put sugar in your cereal? God, you're never going to get to sleep tonight!"

She looked at me in disbelief. "That's the point smart one!"

Thinking it over, I realized how fool proof her plan was. "Hand me the sugar container." She passed it over and I dumped the other half of it in my bowl, she had taken the first half, we used to do this all the time.

Kyrah's POV:

I lounged on the couch in my pristine living room, waiting for my parents to come home and pay me, reading my copy of _forensics for Dummies_ for the billionth time. I was reading a page on something about tox screens when something hit me. Grimacing and forcing myself to type, I texted Shaun.

Shaun. How far are you from the lab?

Why do you want to know?

Because I know how the victim died.

I do too.

How?

I'm at the lab.

What?

I. Am. At. The. Lab.

Did you start the autopsy?

Yes, just now. Cam's not happy that I stopped to text you.

Tell her I'll be there in five minutes, if I fly.

Fly?

Make it ten.

)()()(

I bolted into my garage and grabbed my rollerblades. Flying from my house to the light rail station, I ran over what I was going to tell Cam and Shaun. I was reading about, and tox screens. Nothing special came up on the tox screen, but what if it was something worse, something undetected by a normal tox screen. I swung into the train, and waited the five minutes until the next stop.

)()()(

"Sorry I didn't show, I had a long day yesterday."

"That's fine. Harris says you have news?"

"Yeah, where's the vic's tox screen?" Cam handed me a clipboard. All levels of everything were normal. Except a very small, minute spike in tone of the graphs. I grabbed around for a syringe. Rolling my shoulders, I took a sample from the vitreous humor in the eye. Injecting it into the test tube and stoppering it, I pulled off a glove and dialed Megan. Cam and Shaun stood around, dumbfounded.

"Pick up, pick up, pick uuuuuuupppp," I muttered into the receiver.

)()()(

Megan's pov:

"My brain is fuzzing!" I screamed at Caitlin who kept chanting that she couldn't breathe. Just then a giant ring blared throughout my room. Screaming, Caitlin and I frantically ran to the closet. Looking out, I saw my phone buzzing on the bedside table. "Imma go get it... watch my back!" Sneaking out and crawling on all fours, I advance to the blue glowing mobile cell phone. "Hello?" I ask quietly.

"Megan!" Yells a voice. Screaming again I through the phone to the bed

"LEAVE ME ALONE EVIL BEAST!"

"Megan, it's me, Kyrah."

Upps, grabbing the phone I start over. "Hi Kyrah!" I said cheerfully.

"Where are you?"

"Home, why?"

"I need a forensic scientist at the lab."

"Go get Abby, or something."

"As of now, it's just you. No one else is assigned to the case."

"Kyrah..." I exhaled in annoyance. Why was she even at the lab today?

"Megan..." She mocked.

"Maybe. Can it wait until after lunch?"

"No."

"What is it?" I was getting even more annoyed with her short and meaningless answers.

"A sample taken from the Vitreous Humor in the victim's eye that may or may not contain amounts of a certain seemingly untraceable poison."

"I already did the toxicology screen. What else could you possibly need!"

"I need someone to run a specific test."

"Which is...?"

"I hoped you would know." I rolled my eyes. A loud crash sounded somewhere in my house.

"I'll call you back, Kyrah."

"No, Megan-" The phone beeped as I pressed the red button.

"Caitlin!" I screamed.

"What?" Her voice sounded muffled.

"We're going to the lab!" I slipped on my vans. I got dressed earlier when I couldn't stand my PJ's anymore.

"Awww!" She thudded into my room and frowned. "I was just putting up the fort!"

"She needs us now, which means, stop, we can do that later." Building a fort was pretty irresistible, but Kyrah got so mad if we didn't do something she asked us to do. "I'll call Phil." I punched the keyboard on my phone, dialing Phil, our mysterious driver of the black van. "Yeah, we need you to pick us up at Megan's house. Thanks!"

-X-

The van picked us up a couple minutes later in front of my house. The benches in the back faced each other. I shut my eyes for a second...

And when I opened them, we were there. I pulled a five out of my pocket. "Hey thanks for driving us around all the time." I handed it to Phil, who took it and mumbled a thanks as his cigar bobbed up and down.

Cullen was waiting in my lab, Kyrah by his side. When he saw me, he frowned. "Finally. We need results, Hamberlin." He turned to the plasma T.V. as Kyrah handed me the vial. She whispered to me about what she needed. "What do you have?"

"Well, all I have is," I typed into my computer, but then put the first vial in the mass-spectrometer, not knowing what numbers to plug in. "The victim's shoes were taken off when the lower body was dunked in acid. Probably not a long time because the acid didn't deteriorate the bones. The victim's shoes also have a weird black gunk that came from an airport runway." I bit my lip thinking. "That means the victim, otherwise known as Larry Suite was flown in from..." I typed in my computer, trying to find it. Nothing came up. "I don't know, but William's field National Airport had a few of their runways repaved."

"Hmmm. Print DiNozzo a map. He could get lost in a hallway." I printed the page, folded it in half and handed it to him. He left leaving Caitlin spinning in one of my chairs, and Kyrah Staring at me, grinning.

"Ya gonna run it?" She was referring to the second vial. I rolled my eyes and set it in the Mass Spec.

"Does this sample contain cells? Or is it Manufactured?"

"Cells, its vitreous humor. I need a specific tox screen. Run the Poison tests, especially the Tetrodotoxin. I have reason to believe that was the cause of death."

"O-Kay..." I hit a few buttons, hoping to look official-ish. "I'll have your results in about an hour. Why did you have to get us down here so fast?"

"I think tetrodotoxin poisoning was the cause of death. Cam wants me to be sure of it. The victim's lips were swollen, and it all appeared to be allergy-type symptoms..."

"Point is...?" Caitlin asked.

"The point is, we are that much closer to catching Kaylee's stalker."

"That's Kaylee's stalker," she pointed towards the autopsy pictures.

"Someone wanted him dead," I mentioned. The Mass spectrometer beeped. "That was unnaturally fast..." My screen displayed a spiky graph. A small array of lines filled one side, slowly increasing to the other side. One spike had green letters over it reading: TTX 0.07%.

"Is that fatal?" Kyrah asked.

"No, but it's diluted since death." I printed out the new tox screen and handed it to her before she bolted without it.

"Now what?"

"_Slade_ texted me, Booth wanted him to help interrogate the victim's girlfriend. Ugh." As I finished, speak of the devil, Slade came into the room.

"So, what's up with the case?" He asked.

I shrugged. "It's need-to-know, and _you_ don't _need_ to know." I snapped before Caitlin or Kyrah could say anything.

He fumed. "Why did we turn into the Devil's assistants?" I almost smirked at the double references to the devil.

I glanced over at the girls, then at the door. "Oh, we were just going to go to Cam..." They shoved each other out the door.

Once, they left, I rounded on him. "What do you mean, '_why did you_'?" I exploded.

"I didn't mean to-" He fired back defensively.

"Didn't mean to what? Ruin my life for the next few years? Made it so I only ate ice cream, and even then, sparingly? Or go through box after box after box of tissues? Giving us nightmares f-for a couple years?" I blinked rapidly, forcing tears back. I sobbed without the tears. "Making me cry so much that my mom brought up a glass of water every couple of minutes to restock my fluids?" I picked up the sandpaper to work on the walls, moving the paper back and forth, trying to forget the past. "Yeah, sure you didn't mean to. You sure didn't. Nope, you didn't even use that brain of yours...Oh, wait, sorry, forgot you _didn't_ have a brain." A saltwater drop fell from my eyes, and I wiped it off quickly so he couldn't see.

Strong arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me back to him. "I'm sorry," He whispered in my ear. "It was Shaun's idea. I knew it would hurt you." Slade tried to comfort me.

I fought, forcing myself out of his grasp. "What is wrong with you? Get out! Now!" I started shoving him out the door.

"There is nothing wrong with me. I'm just trying to help!" He pouted, but I wouldn't budge.

"This is your idea of _helping?_ Well, you can stop trying to help because it's not helping, it's making it worse."I slammed the door, locking it. I ran back to my refrigerator and took out a small tub of ice cream. Mint chocolate chip. I took a plastic spoon from the box and dug into the pale green mixture.

Half the carton was gone before a knock rung on the door. One knock, two knocks, five knocks. It was Caitlin. The door clicked as I unlocked it. She spoke as the door swung open. "Thanks."

"Whatever." I replied, turning back to my computer. "Aren't we going to the observation room?"

"Why not."

)()()()( Caitlin's POV

We slid next to Dr. Sweets in the observation room. Booth grilled a girl in her high teens. She wore clothing similar to the victim: Black, black, skinny jeans, and more black. Sweets whispered into his microphone.

"Ask her if she and Larry were romantically intimate."

"Excuse me for a moment." Booth. He walked to the corner of the interrogation room.

"Sweets, I am not asking her that. This is a murder trial, not a teen drama flick."

"Your aversion to the subject suggest that you have a lot of pent up s-"

"Shut up, Sweets, this is my interrogation. Ms... Bethany Dorrance, were you aware that Larry had this photograph in his wallet." He slapped a copy of the Polaroid of Kaylee and a photo of the encryptions on it on top of the autopsy pictures.

"No. Who the heck is that chick? She's like, five."

"Maybe this will help." He placed another photograph, this one a recent picture of Kaylee.

"I've seen her, maybe at the mall or something, but IDK," Beth spelled out, "It could've been anyone."

"IDK?" Booth mumbled into the mic.

"I believe she is using a form of chat speak. IDK means I don't know."

"Wow, thanks Sweets." Sarcasm. "Listen. We need answers. Did you ever hear of this 'chick'?"

"Hey, man, if I knew her name or somethin' I migh' know more?"

"Kaylee."

"Kaylee got a last name?"

"Oh, now you're just making me mad. If you don't cooperate, you'll be landed in Juvie, and, in six months, when you're an adult, federal prison. Your call."

"Uh, once, maybe. But dude, it wasn't Lars that told me. It was some kid at a fast food joint. He looked at me, then told Lars "Finally, you've gotten over Kay?" and Lars is all like "Nah, but Dori here will do." We hit a rough spot in our 'ship then."

"Ship?" He prompted more from sweets.

"Relationship, Booth."

"Well, then. Kid at the joint got a name?"

"Nope."

"Agent Booth, she's telling the truth. I don't believe she couldnt've killed anyone." Booth looked back up at 'Dori'.

"Did you know that Lars was cheating on you?" On our side of the glass rang out three 'what?'s. Apparently Booth was trying to provoke her.

"Wouldn't be surprised."

"Why is that?"

"He had all these cheerleaders draped over him. Face it; the dark guys are the hottest, aren't they?"

"Um. Well. Uh." Booth stuttered. She pulled her blond-black streaked hair back from her ears to her face and kicked her combat-booted feet onto the table.

"You know what, feet OFF the table." Booth stormed out of the room and into ours. "I'm going for coffee." We shrugged and watched Beth. She had her hands dropped into her lap, moving unnecessarily as if texting on an invisible phone. We exhaled and went into the hallway.

"Well, that got us nowhere," I said.

"Nah, we know who isn't the murderer, and that the vic had a connection to Kay," Megan told me. I pulled out my phone.

"Kyrah'll want to kn-"

"Not over the phone... arrange a meeting or something."

"Hey Kyrah?"

"Shalom!"

"Meet us at... Polar Ice in twenty."

"I'm broke..."

"Uh, talk to Sweets or Cam or something." Her next few lines were muffled.

"Thanks! I'll pay you back!" Her voice became clearer: "I just said "Shaun, do you got twenty bucks I can borrow?" and he pulled out a wad of cash and tossed me one! What luck! I'll be there!"

)()()( Kaylee's POV)

Keep going, Keep going, keep going and launch and yes! A perfect waltz jump! I swerved around to avoid a few kids playing tag and a couple skating hand in hand.

"Kaylee!" Someone caught my arm and spun us around. I caught a flash of red hair before my vision cleared up.

"Caitlin! What are you doing here?"

"Hey don't forget about us!" Kyrah and Megan slid up behind us, Kyrah slightly icing our ankles.

"Uh, sorry. I'm working on the whole 'breaking' concept." She tapped her hockey skates against the wall, clearing them somewhat of ice.

"We have loads to tell you, Kyrah, Kaylee," Caitlin said. We started to skate in lazy circles. Megan and Caitlin spun this story. Bethany Dorrance, Beth, Dori. Gothic. Didn't know about the picture. Heard of a 'Kaylee'. They summarized in record time.

"Well then," I said. "Now what?" We skated in silence, all of us doing jumps while Kyrah spun in a small oval. We talked about the cause of death, who didn't kill 'Lars', who might have.

"Tag, you're it, Kaylee," Megan started. "You'll never catch us!" Oh. Its. On. Like Donkey Kong. I chased her. When I caught up, I slowed and tapped on her shoulder.

"You're it. No tagbacks!" She raced away. I looked around and spotted Caitlin. We played tag for a good twenty minutes. By then almost everyone left, and the Zamboni was starting to come out.

"Are they kicking us off the ice already? I'm enjoying our freedom from Cullen, cadavers, and the boys!" Caitlin said, looking at the clock on the wall. It was five minutes before the skate session was supposed to end.

"Ehn, we better get off, guys," I said, making my way to the entrance. Too bad it closed before we could get out. A tall guy in his late teens had shut it. At first we though he was an employee because of his standardized navy jacket, until we noticed the public use blue skates. He skated up to us.

"Kaylee, look at you! You're all grown up! It's been ages, Kaylee," He reached for my arm, trailing his hand up it.

"Get. Away. From. Her." Caitlin, Megan, or Kyrah said. I couldn't tell which one. I was too scared of the creepy dude trying to seduce me or something. The others advanced on him, for what reason other than to kill them selves, I might not find out. The COD held his pocket up.

"Any closer and I'll shoot."

"Like that's real, it's probably just your finger in your pocket." We heard a click. Kyrah continued: "Fingers don't sound like guns though."

"That's right back up. Kaylee, you don't know how long I've waited for this. I. Love. You." He got closer to me each second. Suddenly, a roar sounded. The girls sprung back, and the guy rolled to one side. The Zamboni rolled into my view, stopping mere inches from me. My attacker was pinned under the Zamboni, not crushed or dead or anything, just stuck. The driver got off it, grabbed the dude's arms and drug him into the penalty box on one side. Locking it from the outside, he turned to us, breathing deeply from his adrenalin rush, his dirty blond hair slurred across his face.

"JEFF! Your rock man!" Caitlin screamed.

"Th-thank y-you...Jeff," I said, copying Caitlin who had speed skated over and was now on his back as he spin in his leather black shoes, laughing.

"No problem. Do you want me to call the cops or something?"

"On it," replied Caity, jumping off his back. Jeff pulled out a glove and picked up the creeper's gun. The 'Creeper' banged on the glass and tried to unlock it. No such luck came to him. Under ten minutes later, a small group of people came onto the ice.

First in the rink was obviously Booth, gliding smoothly near us. He looked in the penalty box, getting all the explanation he needed. He tapped on the glass.

"ID?" The captive gave him a look as if to say "As if!" Booth whipped out his gun and aimed it at him. The guy pulled out his Drivers License and held it to the glass.

"Cody Dawes."

"Ah." On that cue, three figures entered the ice. One, crawling on hands and knees, one wobbly skating and flailing arms, one perfectly gliding sliding around and icing the others.

"Cut it out Shaun, show off!" I remembered it as Peter's voice. He was on the ground.

"Yeah, some of us aren't figure skaters!" Slade's comment landed him another dose of ice.

"It's Hockey. Got it?" The others numbly nodded and made their way over to us. When Peter and Slade had caught up, Kaylee began.

"Cody? Dawes? Wait, I know you!" ("You do?" The others asked.)

"Yes, Kaylee, I babysat you as a child, remember! I love you!" I swore a little bit, earning a warning glance from Booth.

"That, Cod," I referred to the fish, "Kidnapped me when I was younger. He wasn't caught. Now he he he found me, and harassed me, (red light situation, I might add) huhhhh."

"Kaylee, I didn't kn-"

"Stop, Megan," I said, "its okay." The girls lead me away from the box and to one of the walls. I kept listening to the others, anyway.

"How'd you do it?" Shaun.

"Do what?"

"Tetradotoxin."

"His soft drink at Wendy's."

"Was that a confession?" Slade.

"I believe so." Peter.

"Alright, you're under arrest for the Murder of Larry Suite, and the abduction and harassment of Kaylee Butler. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have a right to legal council, if you cannot afford council, the court may assign..." Booth slapped the cuffs on Dawes. Case closed, I guess. We started to skate towards the entrance.

"Kaylee, do you want to-"

"Megan, I'm Okay, I don't want to talk about it!" I shoved my hands into my pockets and walked onto the rubberized floor, watching as the ice slid off of the blades.

_"Take the first floor, I got the top." Probably the worst words I've ever heard. _

_When the houses security system blared, that was my signal to head for cover. The high pitched "EEEEEEE AAAAAAAA EEEEEEE AAAAAAAAA!" stopped suddenly. I was calmed when I heard the words of my father mumbled into a receiver on the wall._

_"Don't worry, we left our keys in the car, we thought it was unlocked, and jiggled the lock a little. No worries."_

_"Would you like us to temporarily stop alerts for that particular area... the front doorknob?"_

_"That would be perfect, just for tonight."_

_"Thank you, Mr. Butler." I came back downstairs. My family settled into our nightly activities. I sat on the stairs, dropping my volleyball, slinky, and paper airplanes down them. My dad clacked away at the computer. Mom mixed brownies or cookies in the kitchen. We were all inside. As if in slow motion, the glass in the front door shattered. A hand reached in and pulled the door open. Two masked teens walked in, guns aloft._

_"Move. Take the first floor, I got the top." I charged up the stairs, looking down at the scene unfolding in front of me. I squeezed my eyes shut just as the first bullet collided with my dad's forehead. I was cowering in my room when I heard the second, no doubt into my mother. Footsteps thundered up the steps and into the hallway. _

_"Where are youuuuuu, Kayleeeeeee?" The lock clicked on my doorknob, slowly revolving into the unlocked position. Someone was outside that door._

"Kaylee! Earth to Kay!" Kyrah's hand waved in front of my face. "We returned your skates. And got you hot cocoa." She shoved the glass in front of me. I sipped it slowly.

"Come on, Booth's waiting. Bruick texted us, we got to get back." Walking out, I stuck my hands in my pockets seeing how everyone was except for Caitlin who was dragging a suitcase containing her Jackson skates. Lucky, stupid rental skates. I thought to myself as she threw the bag in the back and climbed in the black van, slamming the door causing her to get a hiss and glare from Booth.

A/N: People, we need reviews. One day, this story'll make it big… we swear… but the only thing worse than getting dissed by your publisher is no reviews. So, on that note, until we get 35 reviews, CH is hereby postponed. Enjoy reviewing!

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	17. Chapter 16: Pacts and Runaways

Criminology High: Chapter Sixteen: Pacts and Runaways

DISCLAIMER: We own all of this*. We swear.

*Except for anything from Bones or NCIS

)()()(Kyrah's POV)

"I must admit," Cullen paced in front of us, "I was skeptical when Agent Bruick came to me with the preposition that you six would adequately fill the slots in our forensics department." The seven of us were lined shoulder to shoulder in his office, barely fitting between the two walls, at attention. Dawes had already been officially tried and placed in prison for Lord knows how long. "You have out done yourselves. Miss Somers," He nodded to her, "In discovering the bones were acid dipped. We found a disintegrated bath tub in Dawes' apartment. Miss Hamberlin," Another nod, "In running the tests, discovering where the victim recently was, and running toxicology screens. Miss Di Croce," He nodded (again) towards me, "In your discovery of the cause of death. Mr. Harris also for that reason. Mr. Parker for alerting us to the severity of Dawes' actions. And Mr. Easton for keeping the investigation running smoothly. And a special mention towards Miss Butler in her perseverance in the case. We would have never caught Dawes without your input. Thank you all. My assistants and I have decided to... Keep the **Criminology high** program running, and-" His cell phone beeped. He pulled it out, opened the flip top, squinted at it, hit random buttons, and handed it to Bruick, who read it.

"Sir, uh, we have a simple breaking and entering downtown. There is no body count. I uh, have to go..." He handed the phone back to the Director and squeezed out of the room.

"On that note... We will collect you si- _seven_ when we have another case... Please welcome Miss Kaylee Butler to your squad!" All the girls in the room gave Kaylee a group hug, and the guys high-fived her. We all left the room in high spirits.

"OK," Peter said, running up to us. "I declare that right now, we all deserve ice cream!" Caitlin cracked up. Looking at her in confusion, her eyes told Megan and I all we needed to know to start laughing with her. The boys had a confused look implanted onto their faces. Looking at each other, we made the motion of flipping out hair with our hands (even though most of our hair was tied up), sighed and said "Aww, memories" while wiping an imaginary tear from our eyes, staring into the distance. It was something we created a few years back.

[-X-]

Twenty minutes later, we found ourselves in the ice cream shop, plenty of (Bruick's) cash in hand. We made our way to the large round booth in the back of the shop. I slid in first, followed by Caitlin, Megan, and Kaylee. Shaun, Peter, and Slade slipped in next to us. I dug into my Almond-Pistachio Mint ice cream. We laughed and had a good time. We relived the best and funniest parts of this first case.

"Hey, Megan," Slade said, "Remember when you beat the heck out of that punching bag?" Megan laughed and held up her hand. It had a small amount of worn-out gauze wrapped around her four fingers.

"Or when you jumped off my roof, and missed the tramp on the way to the pool." I laughed a little at the truth that we masked.

"Okay, okay, let's stop talking about me," Megan said modestly. She took a large bite of her Mint Chip ice cream.

"How about the City tag, guys," Peter said, adding "Idiots" under his breath.

"That was fun...minus the stalkers." Kaylee seemed more cheered up since the encounter at the Ice rink.

"Yup! You know what was totally fun, Kyrah?" Caitlin doused her bowl of ice cream with more chocolate sauce.

"What?" I asked, enthusiastically waiting for her reply.

"When you made us leave our fort for a simple toxicology screen." She replied, pausing her squeezing motion on the bottle to glare at me.

"Fort?" Peter said.

"You know, like, blankets stretched over chairs and stuff, making a little tent..."

"I knew that, I was asking why someone like...you... would do something so coo- immature."

"You calling me immature?" She retorted, with an air of sarcasm suggesting she wasn't hurt.

"No, no, Caity, never." Something flashed in her eyes, probably surprise and annoyance at her nickname coming from anyone other than Me, Megan, or Kaylee.

"It was just a tox screen. We may never have gotten a confession without it, would we have, Shaun?" I said, distracting her.

"Uh," His hand shot to the back of his neck, and hung there. "I don't thin- No, we wouldn't have!" Kaylee finished her milkshake with a slurping, gurgling noise.

"I gotta hand it to you guys; this has been one whirlwind week..." Kaylee used her straw to push the last bits of milkshake around the bottom of her cup. That phrase seemed to stop the world in its tracks. Everyone paused.

"Has?" Peter asked.

"Yeah. It's been awesome with you guys-"

"But-" I said, expecting the 'but'.

"But, You guys have just been so, so secretive. First you're talking about victims and flashing this picture of me as a kid, then you're talking about an 'Anti-Book club', then you're on this tour, and then I'm getting assigned to a squad called Criminology High? Can someone tell me what the heck is really going on?" Kaylee placed her hands flat on the table, making a loud thump, and stood up. No one spoke at first, before I broke the silence.

"About a month or so ago, Bruick pulled us out of school, stuffed us in a conference room and gave us a case to solve. We solved it in record time. Director gave us the okay and kept us. We got another real case, and of course, solved it. Last week, we got this case about some guy hanging from a crane. He had that picture with him..."

"Fine, don't tell me." Kaylee stalked out of the shop.

"Kyrah!" Megan gasped at me. "How could you-"

"Stop. How can you peg this on me?"

"She just...walked...out..." Caitlin's voice dropped in volume and force with each word. I hung my forehead in my hands.

"I'll be at the lab." I left the table, pulling out my duct tape wallet and dropping the only cash I had, $2.50, on the table. "See you guys later."

[-x-]

*****Peter's POV

Kyrah got up as I watched Kaylee leave in disappointment. Looking at Caity, she was looking down, distant. I had to something. Getting up I threw a 20 on the table and ran after Kaylee. As soon as I got out the door, I looked all around but I couldn't see her. Remembering back to how the girls were at Polar Ice, I hailed a cab and headed to the deathly ice rink, it was worth a try.

The cab pulled up and I thanked the man, running in the building at the same time. Sprinting to the desk, I ran into something, causing me and the object to fall. Looking next to me, I saw the man that had caught Cody. Jeff I believe his name was. "JEFF!" I grabbed his shoulders, looking into his eyes as he held his head. "Is Kaylee here?"

He looked at me, recognizing me from the other day, he answered. "Yeah, she just got here. She looked pissed man."

Thanking him, I got up and ran into the 'South Pole'. Seeing Kaylee standing in front of the rink, her hand on the door, she was staring out over the ice. Walking over I grabbed her shoulder. Jumping ten feet in the air, she screamed, turning around and slapping me causing everyone at the rink to turn and look. Flushed and with a throbbing face, I grabbed her arm and pulled her to the other rink where it was warmer and had a hockey game going on.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I'm here to explain."

"Look kid, I don't need your lies too." She turned away and I grabbed her arm, spinning her around before she got too far.

"My name is Peter Parker, I'm fourteen years old, go to Desert Ridge High, never kissed anybody, my uncle abused me when I was 6 and killed my parents in front of me. When he was found out, I was put into the foster system where I was transferred to different homes every year including homes for troubled teens."

"Why did you tell me that?"

"Because you need to trust me, and I'm not done yet." I said staring strait into her eyes so I knew she was taking me seriously. "A few days ago, a man came to my school and said that he needed to see me and one of my friends. He said that he worked with the FBI and that they needed our help, we were called Criminology High."

"Ah, not you too, you know I'm tired of people lying to me, can you just..." She interrupted me.

I continued, ignoring her.

"They had us work a practice case. After that, I was assigned as the 'hacker'. A few small cases later, Caity came to me with a picture. It said 'I'm so sorry, Kaylee' on it. She had this... gut feeling it was you, turns out it was, and a bianaric code was laced into the photo. It said 'I WILL FIND YOU AGAIN'. She panicked and we went to that Ice Cream shop to sort it out. Megan, Kyrah, and you came in, and we chatted, if you remember, about that book club thing... well, Shaun and Slade took up a surveillance post outside the shop. It spooked Megan and we went on that ridiculous city tag thing. Then, as Caity told me, at the ice rink, the murderer, your stalker's stalker, and your ex babysitter came. Jeff ran him down with the Zamboni. You have to believe us! If you don't... We'll lose the team. You ran off, Kyrah went back to the lab, Megan's probably confused right now, and Caity's thoroughly-"

"Well aren't you a good liar." She shot back into the 'South Pole', running somehow on skates. I stopped at the desk.

"Jeff, man, I need help. Toss me skates."

"What si-"

"SKATES, Jeff. Now," I looked past him and into the rink. Kaylee was speed skating around the rink, practically a blur... A pair of plastic blue skates dropped in front of me. I snapped them on, and wobbled to the rink. I gripped the edge, inching around. By the time I made it thirty feet, she had passed me several times. I tried a new approach. I waited until she flew past again, reaching for the hood on her black coat. She stumbled back, slamming into the wall and sliding down. I crouched down. "You gotta believe me, Kaylee."

[-x-]

*****Shaun's POV

Peter stalked off, probably after Kaylee, as she seemed most likely to leave the group permanently. All that was left at the counter was Caitlin, Megan, Slade, and Me.

"I, uh, better go check on...Kyrah... "I stood up. Slade gave me this look as if to say 'Don't you dare leave me alone.' "Uh, yeah." I left, dropping a $2 bill in my place.

Caitlin looked around, to Megan and Slade.

"Well, this is awkward... I should just..."

[-x-]

I checked autopsy. She wasn't there. Cam's office? No. The forensics platform? No. In a last stitch effort, I checked the incubator room.

"Hello?"

"Talking to yourself? Looking for me?" Kyrah was sitting at one of the desks, playing with a flesh eating beetle. Four empty and crushed cans of Mountain Dew livewire sat in front of her, one half full rested in her right hand.

"Yeah. The others were pretty worried when you ran off like that."

"So?" She was being defiant. "Hey! No biting!" She flung the offending insect back into the Plexiglas box. About two hundred others scurried around inside, rapidly deteriorating the flesh to skeletal remains.

"So if Kaylee and Caitlin get mad, along with you, the team will crumble."

"I don't know, Shaun," She took a long sip from her Mountain Dew. "If I keep this up... Ah, my head'll just-"

"Bwhhhhhoosshh." I made an explosion noise and pantomimed my head exploding. I did not expect her reaction. She stiffened, sucking in a gasp. Her hand dropped the can (luckily it didn't spill) and grabbed for her forehead.

"Gah!" She picked up a pen, clicked wildly and slapped it down angrily.

"Kyrah? Kyrah, are you okay?"

"Leave me... ALONE? Grr."

"What?" It was a while before she answered.

"I have a negative rea- ahhrg, to explo- rgghh." She pulled open her wallet, and pulled out a blister packet of prescription medication. She took one with a swig of soda. She calmed herself into a gasping mess.

"Are you okay...?"

"Now, I think..."

"What happened...?"

"I should've listened... My therapist said that the reactions should be stopping..."

"What?"

"Shaun, I have Post traumatic Stress disorder." I stepped back. That explained more than enough.

"What was the trauma?"

"I-I don't know. I know it happened when I was eight. I can't even remember anything before that... Now anything is my 'trigger'. Ex-ex-explosions, mostly." she drained the rest of her soda. Running her hands up her head, she tangled her fingers in her long hair, pushing the camouflage bandanna to the back of her head. I contemplated my options, and then slowly pulled one of her hands away from her hair.

"Hey, don't torture yourself. I've been through more than enough of that." She pulled her other hand away from her scalp.

"You have?" I used my free hand to mess up my hair, attempting to be smooth. At her odd look, though, I realized this was the wrong move. New approach. I rolled my arm around, showing her a short, but wide scar on my left wrist. She grabbed my hand, now holding both of them, our fingers entwined. "How?" She barely whispered. Her normally blue eyes were now gray and bleary, probably from the meds she took.

"Kyrah, you have to understand one thing. They didn't want me, my parents, no one did. Everyone hated me. They left me. Four years ago. I was young, stupid, heck! I still am, but then, I thought that hurting myself was the answer. The doctors would never find out." I pulled my hands reluctantly away from hers, rolling up the sleeves of my button up shirt. I pointed to the scars on my arm. "Curling Iron. Lighter. I never liked sharp things. Stove, though that was on accident." Before I could even get to my legs and feet, she got up and crushed me in a hug. Seconds later, I felt so bad. I had made THE Kyrah Di Croce cry. She pulled one of our joined hands away and slowly traced the spiral scar on my palm from that stove.

"I don't hate you..." She mumbled into my shirt. I brought her bandanna back onto her forehead. I put my chin on her head, smiled, and pulled her close.

"Me neither."

[-x-]

*****CAITLIN'S POV

"Well, this is awkward... I should just..." Megan's eyes widened for a second, closing slightly at my explaining look. "Kay's probably at Polar Ice, and we all know that Peter skates like a drunken hockey referee... I better go..." Deserting them like everyone else, I jogged to the bus stop.

[-x-]

I was forced to use rental skates, as I couldn't get back to the lab to get mine. The blades were extremely dull, but I didn't have the time to get them sharpened. I skidded onto the ice. Peter and Kaylee were pulled off to one side.

"You gotta believe me, Kaylee."

"KAY! Peter," I slid up to them.

"She doesn't believe me." I gave Kaylee a sidelong glance.

"What did you tell her?"

"I told her about Bruick starting Crim.-Hi. A little bit about this last case, a little bit about my pa-" He stopped short of his sentence.

"What?"

"-st," He finished before looking down and trying to stand. I shook off my current thoughts on his past as I coached him into standing on ice. When we were all standing, Kaylee picked up the conversation.

"I'll be getting back-"She skated off, but I grabbed her hood, pulling her back around to us.

"Not so fast, Kay. What do you mean "Past"?" I stuck my hands in my pockets and glared at Peter.

"His Un-"

"Let me, Kaylee," He cut her off, grabbing my hand, he pulled us to one of the hockey dugouts to sit down. "My Uncle... He shot my parents...and me..." He pulled down the shoulder of his t-shirt revealing a cross-hatched red scar. Its size suggested small caliber weapon. "My parents weren't as lucky. They wanted to run... They should've," He paused to readjust his shirt. Or to concentrate on his breathing. "I'm not meant for the system. No one is. It's worse than the shelter. It's only fair we know each others' stories now, I guess." He rubbed his shoulder unconsciously.

"Kaylee, you have to believe us. We'll get The Director to talk to you or something."

"Director? You mean that dude that inducted me? Cullen?"

"Yeah..." I was wondering what was so hard to believe.

"I guess, I guess I can believe you..."

"I'll call Phil."

[-x-]

Slade's POV*******

Meg and I were sitting there, watching Caitlin leave. Once the bell dinged as the door closed, I rounded on her. "So, do you still hate me? Huh?" I fired.

She picked up my orange soda, sipping it and snarling at me. "What do you think?" She replied.

"I still don't see why! I said I was sorry!" I frowned and folded my arms across my chest. I stared hard at my cookie dough chunk ice cream.

Meg chuckled humorlessly, staring at the soda, watching the bubbles fizz to the top. "Sorry doesn't fix anything. Sorry doesn't take away the nightmares. Sorry hardly makes me feel better. A wise man once said, 'Sorry is a sign of weakness. It makes you look like a fool.' And frankly, I agree with him." She sipped the soda again and placed it back down in front of me. "But if you knew me enough, you would know that I can't hold grudges." She shrugged and tilted her head to the side.

I stood up, scowling at her. "Well, if you are going to be mean, I'll leave then." I started for the door.

"Sit. Back. Down." She stopped giggling and pulled a straight line on her mouth. "I'm not done talking to you." Meg picked up her ice cream, cookies and cream.

I leaned forward. "Oh, yeah?" I asked. "Well, I. Am." I turned to walk out the door.

I heard the leather from the booth move, most likely from Meg standing up. Her boot thunked on the floor and a hard hand grabbed my shoulder, yanking me around to face her. Her face was a couple inches from mine. "Like I said, we aren't done talking. "Her voice was smooth, but dripped with acid. The acid burned away and all it was soothing. "I'm so-...I won't do it again, Slade. I know it was mean to do." Meg's breath smelled like Oreos, her hand still resting on my shoulder. Her other hand came up and placed itself on the other.

My hands moved on their own, up until they rested on her waist. She repositioned, wrapping her arms around me. Her head fell into the crook of my neck. My arms worked against me, they wouldn't listen, wrapping and locking around her. "Hey." She called, her voice muffled. "I love you for caring." She tried to look up, unsuccessfully.

I smiled. "Sorry doesn't fix anything."

She flinched, taken aback. "I never said-" She started.

I took a breath in. "Oh, yes you did. You almost said it, and that still counts, even though you are too hypothetical to admit it." I nodded for a few times.

"Whatever." She paused, and I felt her chest rise and fall in a sigh. "I know, but does this fix anything?" She leaned back and looked up into my face.

I sighed, looking forward. "No, _staring_ at me doesn't make anything better." I ground my teeth together, my eyes fixed on the salt shaker.

"Not that stupid." She put a hand on my jaw, forcing me to gaze into her piercing blue eyes. "This." She stood on her tip-toes, because I was a head taller than she was, even though she's five feet four. Our lips brushed and I moved my mouth to her cheek. My heart started beating a million miles an hour, and I hoped she couldn't feel it.

I pulled away, looking back into her tropical, startling blue eyes. "May...be a little bit." I thought out loud.

"Oh...Crap..." Meg inhaled sharply, looking out the window of the shop.

"What?" I asked as I turned to look with her.

Caitlin, Kaylee, and Peter were standing at the front door, Caitlin's hand extended as if to grab the door knob and pull it open. She looked at me and then to Megan, tears welling up in her eyes as the other two stood in shock. Pulling her hand back and shaking her head, eyes still locked with Megan's, her face grew red and she stumbled backwards, as soon as she was in the road, she turned and ran, finally catching the attention of the other two.

"CRAP!" Megan screamed as she ran to the door. Throwing it open, she ran to the street, me following closely behind. Staring out at the empty street, no sign of Caitlin's existence there only moments before was present.

Peter ran up to us and grabbed Megan's shoulders, shaking her he demanded to know what had just happened. Tears welled up in my Megan's eyes just as they had with Caity's and I pushed Peter off of her, pulling her to my chest. "She thinks I betrayed her. We made a pact that we would never trust guys again after what they did to us and I betrayed her." She said pushing me away which only caused me to hold her tighter and whisper in her ear for her to calm down. This would work you would think, not with her. Our proximity must have frightened her because she began pushing harder, causing pain to my chest. "NO!" She screamed. "GET OFF ME, GET AWAY." She escaped me and stumbled back, falling to the curb and pulling her knees to her chest.

"We have to go find her!" Peter screamed, panic lased in his voice.

"You can't." Megan mumbled from her position.

"Why not!"

"You WON'T BE ABLE TO!"

"HOW COME?" The conversation between the two grew louder and people walking began to look, the cars we had blocked from standing in the street had stopped honking and rolled their windows down to hear the conversation.

"BECAUSE, WE LEARNED QUITE FAST HOW IMPORTANT IT WAS TO HIDE! SHE WON'T BE FOUND IF SHE DOESN'T WANT TO BE!"

"AND HOW DO YOU KNOW SHE DOESN'T WANT TO BE FOUND BY ME?" Megan looked up, her eyes blood shot and her voice quieter.

"Because you are a guy. We are not supposed to trust guys and I broke that rule, and I broke her too." Standing up, she walked away. Leaving us in shock, I turned around just in time to see her weave through cars and disappear. What just happened?

"What's going on?" A voice sounded behind me, reading my mind. "What stopped the traffic?" Shaun and Kyrah materialized in my view.

"Well don't you have great timing...?" Peter said, rolling his eyes when he said 'great'.

"What do you mean?" and "Where's Megan and Caitlin?" Kyrah and Shaun said at the same time. I weighed my options and decided I could ''Kiss and tell" later, when Meg's Best friend wasn't here.

"Meg and I were sorting out some _private issues_, and Caitlin, Kaylee and Peter come running up. Caitlin freaked and backed away, Meg ran after and it's all a really long story that they can tell you later..."

"Aw, man, you didn't kiss her, did you?" Kyrah asked, not sarcastic at all.

I blinked, "What?"

"Idiot." She rolled her eyes, stuffed her hands in her pockets, and walked off in the general direction of the others.

A/N: How'd we do?


	18. Chapter 17: Texted Apologies

Chapter 17: Texted apologies

Caitlin's POV*****

I can't believe it! She broke our promise, she broke me. I need time alone. Just then i ran past a building with the word demolition on a board in the front yard, a bulldozer in the front. I decided that was perfect and entered a gap in the fence. Any trouble I'd get into the FBI would sort out, I hope. Finding an empty room, just off the abandoned lobby, I sat down on the ground, my back to the wall. Head in my hands, I let loose.

Meg said- No, _Hamberlin_ said that we wouldn't trust them. Then I see her lip locked with precisely the person we wouldn't trust. What has this world came to?

The gate outside creaked. The revolving door in the lobby swished. A voice Echoed inside the first floor.

"Ca-a-a-aiiittty-y-y-y-y-y? Are You-oo in he-e-e-e-e-ere?" It was Kaylee. I didn't even look up. "Caity-y-y-y?" The door into the abandoned office I was in opened, just as i landed outside; i had jumped through windows a lot. I didn't want to be found yet, not like this at least. Taking of i run through a field or wheat located directly behind the building and sit down. The stalks are tall enough that i can hide and people wont see me. Copying my earlier actions, crossing my arms on my legs and laying my head on them, I allowed just one tear to slip past my tough exterior. I blinked it away, blocking the others that would inevitably follow.

_"Caity, lets have an understanding. These _animals_ you know, the kid-kid-kid-"_

_"It's okay, Meg, I understand."_

_"They don't deserve us giving in. We can't trust anyone now."_

_"Right. No one. Ever." I turned on my side and moved next to her, limited by the duct tape on my wrists and ankles. We sat, staring at the windowless sides of the van._

_"Hey Caity?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"If we don't make it out of here..."_

_"Don't say it. We'll get outta here, I promise."_

_"Me too. We can only trust each other."_

_"Pretty much." My eight year old mind didn't grasp 'trust', but we both knew what it meant: We are alone. _

I closed my eyes and reflected on us. We were strong back then, emotionally, at least. We made it through, obviously, without a heavy loss. But those things we said in the van, practically our last wishes, we kept them... all through the last five-or-so years. Now, seeing Hamberlin and Sl- Easton... I don't know. I feel so, so alone, or empty.  
It was getting cold and something told me to go back, but I fought. There would be no going back. I'm still strong. Emotionally, at least. A shiver ran down my spine as I pulled my jacket tighter around me. This is going to be a long night.

Kyrah's POV*****

This is the worst night ever. I looked at the clock, 4:37 am. Megan wash thrashing next to me, having another one of her nightmare I assume since Caitlin wasn't here, she never came back from her run away yesterday. We looked everywhere and finally decided to tell Cullen. We all went in together and he was pissed. He spend 20 minutes lecturing us about how we could be so careless and stupid, how we couldn't find where our best friend was. Better get to sleep.

I awoke to a startling sound. "A 14 year old girl has been labeled missing by the FBI today and there will be multiple search parties out. Caitlin Somers, the daughter of agent Westin Somers, ran away after seeing something frightening last night and never came back. If you would like to join one of the parties please..."

"Caitlin isn't Westin's daughter!" Megan said.

"They have to say that or people will start asking why the FBI is involved. I read it over Booth shoulder a few days ago."

"This is all my fault. I broke our promise. God, I'm so stupid!" She said, hitting her head with her hand and getting up, walking towards the window.

"She'll be back. She's probably sleepin' in the park or something and buyin' food in cash from a circle K, I bet. She's fine, Meg," I said, opening a can of soda.

"You better not get that on the carpet," She said without looking back. "She's been gone four days! We'll be lucky if she comes back in a body ba-"

"Don't talk like that, Megan! She will not end up on one of my slabs! Come on, lets go downstairs, eat breakfast, and calm down." I grabbed her shoulders and slowly pulled her back away from the window, leading her towards the stairs.

[-x-]

"So, what was that about a promise? I wasn't there, at the fight, you know," I said between mouthfuls of coco puffs.

"Oh, uh, that. Um, when we were kidnapped," She shuddered, "uh, in the van, we promised each other we wouldn't trust anyone. Of course, we made some exceptions, with you and Kaylee, but we still don't trust pretty much any guy." She shoved a spoonful of lucky charms into her mouth.

"So? Did you trust one of the guys? That's not weird, I mean, I trust Shaun, a little bit." She mumbled something. "What?"

"I probably didn't trust him like you trust Shaun."

"What do you mean?"

"Slade and I, we uh, argued a bit, then I-I-I kissed him..." She shoveled another spoonful into her mouth to avoid elaborating.

"I was right!"

"What?"

"Slade said you guys sorted out ''private issues''... I asked him if he kissed you, and he said," I paused.

"What?" Megan asked.

"Exactly. What."

"I can't tell if I'm mad at Caity, mad at me, or mad at him for denying it!" I smirked and went back to my cereal. We ate in silence the rest of the time, until I had to get back home so I could go to a Geocaching meet-up.

*****MEGAN'S POV

"Bye, Meg! We on for Polar Ice the second Caity comes back?"

I hesitated. "Uh, sure." I closed the door and watched her take off down the street, clumsily on her skateboard. Caitlin was teaching her to skateboard before she left. Kyrah took it upon herself to teach herself, now. I didn't have the heart to tell her she sucks at it.

I went upstairs and checked my email. Seeing nothing on Caity's whereabouts, I pulled out my phone, rolling it between my fingers. I hadn't talked to Slade since that Tuesday. I hit the text messaging icon.

_Slade, I made a mistake. The only reason Caitlin's out there is me. I should've never kissed you. It was a stupid irrational mistake that never had to happen. I'm sorry._

I paused, allowing the cursor to blink before I erased I'm sorry.

_I apologize if you still...like me... I'm sad to say that anything between us is gone. I promised Caitlin on two counts; Not trusting guys, and not letting a guy come between us. I made a mistake. As much as I hate to say it, I'm sorry._

I let the phone drop to my lap. I stared into space thinking. Did I write what I meant? Is that the truth? Am I lying to myself? Sighing, I saved it to drafts. I leaned back in my computer chair. Yes, that is what I mean, right? I sighed again, opening the drafts folder and hitting send. I turned my phone off, not wanting a reply just yet, and turned my radio on. I set up my easel and pulled an unfinished painting from a box. I mixed another small amount of the silvery-red color I was using and began to trace the paint onto the canvas.

*****Slade's POV

At my mom's shout for peace, I turned the amp on my guitar down from ten to eight. Knowing her, I'd be down to two or one by the time I was done practicing. I lost my train of thought, and started from the beginning. I was nearing the actual solo portion of the song when my phone blared. I picked it up off my nightstand, silencing the instrumental classic rock tune coming from it's speaker. The name on the Message ID was Megan's, accompanied by the best picture I was able to get of her. I tapped on the 'Open' icon.

_Slade, I made a mistake. The only reason Caitlin's out there is me. I should've never kissed you. It was a stupid irrational mistake that never had to happen.I apologize if you still...like me... I'm sad to say that anything between us is gone. I promised Caitlin on two counts; Not trusting guys, and not letting a guy come between us. I made a mistake. As much as I hate to say it, I'm sorry._

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. _I should've never kissed you? _But, but, but... If Caitlin didn't witness that, I swear she wouldn't have regretted it. I'm sure of it. _...A stupid irrational mistake..._ Mistake? My usual optimism plummeted with each sentence. _Still like me..._ What was that supposed to mean? Did she like me? Does she hate me now? _Anything between us is gone._ What the heck? Gone? Like when your dog dies gone, or like, lost it- found it gone? _I promised Caitlin..._ At those words I exhaled. Her and Caity were like... two peas in a pod. Inseparable. Anything between them is Law. Like, religious law, or something._ I'm sorry..._ Oh. I took my guitar from around my neck and leaned it up against my bed, allowing my head to drop down onto the pillow. Those last words were hot knives piercing my chest. She _knows_ we don't say sorry. That last sentence was a slam on a personal level. Like she's worth more than what I can offer. Someone knocked on my door.

"Slade? Dinner," My mom knocked again. I rolled to my left, keeping my back to the door.

"Not hungry."

"Come on, your a growing boy and everyone knows-"

"I said I'm not hungry."

"It's lasagna, your favorite!"

"I said-"

"I know, not hungry. I'll save you leftovers. Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, mom," I said, adding "Not mentally..." under my breath.

"Okay, dear, enjoy your rock and rolling!" I rolled my eyes and flopped to my stomach. When my neck couldn't stand the strain of laying face down, I sat up. I hit reply.

_Megan, I don't care what you said. I still l-_

I allowed the cursor to blink it's on-off pattern, deciding on a vowel to follow the 'L'. Not wanting to spook her, or myself, I continued.

_like you. There. I said it. I. Like. You. And, frankly, I couldn't care less on the mistakes you made, or the promises you made. What we had going was good. I like a girl that can do more damage to a punching bag than her bare fists. I like a girl that would break her leg doing something stupid. Nothing you can say can change that. I like you. _

I hit send and stared at the phone, breathing off my sudden adrenalin rush. My heart, and confidence plummeted with the words the screen displayed.

"Recipient's phone is non-responsive. Message not sent." I chucked the phone at my closet door, denting the paint and popping the case off it.

*****Caitlin's POV

I've been gone for five days. I'm surprised Cullen let me out so long without sending agents after me! I survived on drinking water from the lake and eating little berries and apples I found in the forest. Cheesy right? Megan and I had found a tree house a few minutes away from where she lived after we were rescued. We used to go there every day until we were forced back into public school and we never went back because we couldn't find it. The forest was so over grown that it took me three times as long as it used to to look for the markers we left.

What Megan didn't know was that I was watching the scene lay out. I had left binoculars in the clubhouse six years ago and found them lying on the floor. Aiming them in the direction of Megan's room like we used to, the TV was on saying Cullen was sending out a party. I don't want to be found yet!

*****Peter's POV

During the last few days I had thrown myself into my work. I was discussing irregularities in fundamental wireless network coding in an internet chat with one of the FBI Cyber Crimes workers.

CC: The victim had a 80211a wi-fi connection set up in the house.

PP: Impossible.

CC:How so?

PP: The Murderer found a hotspot in the victim's driveway, I'm guessing, and the second they moved the money into the account, the killer went inside to kill the vic. He then severed the wire on the wifi hub, and torched the house. For those sort of applications, they would need a 80211n...

CC: I shall investigate that possibility.

When we finished our discussion, I checked the local news website. Five days, and no new findings. I tried calling her, but, of course, her phone was off. With her phone being off, I couldn't trace her GPS signal. Well, I thought, this sucks.

*****Shaun's POV

"But I cannot hold a decent conversation with anyone who's intellect doesn't exceed a high school degree!" A voice shouted at the opposite side of the Ramada. The voice sat down in front of me on the wire table; a table dubbed 'The kiddo table'. "Sometimes I think someone scrambled her coordinates..." Wait a second. I blinked, reading her name tag.

"Really? Because I'm still in high school and I'm positive we've had a decent conversation," I said, causing her to look up. It was Kyrah. "Team Cache Canines?"

"It's Team Cadaver Dog, now, my tag's old... wait... no..." She stared in disbelief.

"Knight Hawk. I can't believe I didn't see it before!"

_"Come on Rainey!" I drug my little sister towards the launching pad. We were firing off rockets at our campout with team Cache Canines._

_"Kee-rah!" Three year old Raine ran up to the TCC's oldest daughter, who brushed her off towards another 3-year-old Geocacher._

_"Hi, Sha! Lookit! Your dad's shooting da ROCKETS! What engines is he using?"_

_"I gunno, C's I think!" I smiled at my long lost friend._

I blinked myself out of the flashback.

"Oh...my...God..." She kept staring. "You're, you're Sha." She used my nickname. I haven't been called that since I was six. I haven't been Geocaching in ages... since my parents... left... I thought for a second before gathering my courage.

"Do you wanna snag a Cache?"

"Sure." We grabbed our cans of soda. She pulled out a piece of folded paper from her back pocket. "111 west, 32 north... "

"Let's use _my_ GPS..."

"I swear by my Gecko!" We argued for a second, deciding to use both. We plugged the coordinates into the GPS units and took off north, in the direction of the arrow on the GPS. It had rained the previous night, and the ground was muddy and slushy. We navigated across the wet, grassy slopes. A cloud rolled over the sun, shadowing the usual Arizona heat. The digital needle on my GPS jumped and spun. Great, I thought, just what we needed: A messed up signal. Apparently Kyrah's was having the same problem. She threw her right hand to her side, clenching it in a fist.

"Gah. The signal's being jumpy. You got anything?" I shook my head. She relaxed, attempting to find the signal. Seizing my small opportunity, I wrapped my hand around hers. She jerked hers away, using it to tap the display on the GPS. "Aha! gottit!" I followed her, long abandoning my search for a signal. She drug us around the park, winding around trees and mud piles. We stopped at a small clearing, scattered with bushes and logs.

"This ground zero?" I asked, pointing to the desert floor.

"Yeah," She moved the unit toward me. It's display jumped a little bit, flickering between 11 o clock and straight noon. The numbers beneath it proclaimed we were indeed at ground zero. I curled my hand around hers, holding the GPS, she pulled away with a slightly confused look.  
"Anywhere jump out at you?" I shook my head and scanned the brush. She leaned over, sending my mind straight into the gutter. Nonononononono, stay focused. I pulled apart branches looking for something, probably an ammo box or coffee can.

"Nothing down here," I sat back on my ankles, wiping the mud and leaves off onto my camo cargo pants.

"Yeah, but there's something up here." I turned around. She was pointing up the tree. Wedged in the higher branches, sure enough, was a coffee can. It seemed to be wire-tied to the tree. "Here help me up!" She put her hands in the lower branches, and one foot on the trunk. I froze; she noticed. "Well?"

"Oh! Uh, 'kay." I laced my fingers together. She put one shoe on my hands, propelling her feet onto my shoulders. "OH-KAY, that was unexpected!"

"How else are we going to get to it?" I rolled my eyes, transferring her feet onto my hands, pushing her up."Okay, I'm up, I'll toss it-it-it..."

"It?" She clung to the trunk.

"Sorry, it's just.. the tree..."

"Toss me it!" She worked at the wire on the cache. I caught the coffee can and opened it. I dumped out a handful of marbles, a few toys from fast food restaurants, two Beanie Babies with dog tags, a couple decorative coins, and a small notebook and pen. "I'll sign for both of us; Cadaver Dog, right?" She nodded and I inked in our team names."You want anything?" I tossed a decorative key chain into the tub, and taking out a coin shaped like a poker chip.

"Uh, I dunno, pick something for me. I gotta two dollar bill to put in." I chose one of the Beanie Babies.

"Okay, here." I tossed the can up into her waiting arms. She retied it to the tree and climbed down. When she was safely on the ground, she leaned over, hands on her knees. I copied her, snaking my arm around her shoulders. Her muscles tensed, then relaxed. But at least she didn't shake me off!

"I hate trees." We laughed and I handed her the stuffed animal. It was just a dog, with a top hat and dog tags. We were about to walk away, my arm happily still around her shoulder, when Kyrah's head snapped up. "Do you smell that?" I sniffed. Sure, I was a little sweaty, but I didn't smell that bad.

"Not really...?" She dropped to her knees, picking up one of the logs. The dirt was darker, browner, and wetter than the rest. Not to mention the distinct phalanges peeking out of the soil.

"Call the others."


	19. Chapter 18: Slightly Decomposed

Criminology High

Slightly Decomposed

Disclaimer: Odds are, if you recognize it, It isn't ours

*****Kaylee's POV

Everyone was working fast, with Booth and Bruick supervising. I helped Megan take soil samples and plant samples. Kyrah and Shaun worked at freeing the body trapped under two feet of compacted earth. Peter and Slade took wheelbarrows full of dirt over to the blue tarp. Everything had to come.

"Oh! Look! Insect activity!" Megan scooped a handful of what looked like dead flies into a jar.

"Try _inactivity_, Meg," I said, making the mistake of turning around. The body was almost free now, save for its legs. It was lying in the two-foot-deep pit on its back, one arm reaching up. It smelled awful. The _thing_ was almost a skeleton, with just a thick layer of flesh connecting everywhere. A large pile of dead flies and a dead rat-looking thing sat nearby for Megan to collect.

"Time of death?" Booth asked. Kyrah and Shaun turned around, speaking at the same time.

"No."

"What do you mean no," He frowned. "Why? Is it still alive?"

"Is _he_ still alive," she corrected. "And no. The tissue samples are so small that we can't get anything off of him. We'd need Caitlin who we know is not here." Booth dropped his arms with an "Aw, man!"

"How long 'till we get time?"

"About five, maybe six months with this tissue. Or until Caity decides to come back"

"Hurry up people, let's get this back to HQ!"

[-x-]

"That's...That's nice..." I said, squinting in the fluorescent lighting at the "slightly" decomposed cadaver on the table. Our two ME's and Doctor Saroyan were attempting to ID the vic while Caitlin and Dr. Brennan were 'unavailable'.

"Well, get used to it Ms. Butler, 'cause we get a lot of it down here."

"I see dead people!"

"Focus, Mr. Harris." They poked and prodded at the flesh, teasing parts of it from the bone.

"With the prominent brow ridge and pelvic angle, the victim is...Male?" Cam nodded without looking up from her skull.

"Intracranial beveling on one side," She poked her finger through a large hole on one side of the skull, "means...?"

"The force of the weapon came in at this," Shaun directed with his hand, going from the top left of the skull to the bottom right, "angle."

"Guys, is there any way to make this less gruesome?"

"No." They all spoke simultaneously without looking towards me. That was freaky enough.

"Y'know what, guys, I'm gonna talk to Cullen now, so..." I edged towards the door. Quickly slipping through it, I hurried to the elevator. I hopped inside and pressed the level three button. The doors slid shut, canceling the background noise, and amplifying the steady rock beat coming from the elevator speakers. I started tapping my foot, but graduated to a full on air guitar solo. I stopped suddenly, eying the security camera. I smiled sheepishly and waved at the lens. I'm positive the guard on the other end waved back. The doors parted at my floor and I exited. Cullen's office was at the end of the hallway. As I walked, I rehearsed what I was going to say. The door opened before I could reach for the knob.

"Thank you sir, I will get back to you on those reviews," Bruick said, as he left the room.

"Thank you, Greg... Ahh, Miss Butler, come in. Mister Parker tells me that you just recently learned of our well-kept secret. I trust you are asking about your role on this squad?"

"Uh," I sat down in one of the cushion-y wooden chairs across from his desk. "Yes, sir, I was." He pulled out a file, flicked through it, and slid it over to me. My name was in huge block letters, and a recent photo was paper clipped to the front.

"We, after reviewing your past life and ambitions, have decided to place you as our profiler. You may wish to consult with Doctor Sweets as your mentor."

"Profiler?"

"Yes. Are you willing to run background checks, fingerprint, dental records, and DNA analysis, and sit in on interrogations?"

"Yeah, I guess..."

"Good. Here is Doctor Sweet's office number. He's on the first floor. Thank you, Miss Butler, and welcome!"

"Uh... "Did he just thank and 'you're welcome' himself?"Thanks...?" I left the room, Heading for the first floor.

*****Caitlin's POV

I was sitting in 'our' tree house, eating the blueberries off of the wood. The binoculars in my hand were focused on the bedroom window. Meg walked into the room...Wait, this must've been the ki-kidnappers place because if you angled yourself slightly you could see _my _room. I stayed put, frozen by sheer terror. Meg looked out the window, biting her lip, thinking. After a minute, her eyes widened in surprise, looking out into the forest. In a heartbeat, she was gone.

A voice sounded in the forest below, and my heart beat a thousand times a minute. Another voice sounded and they both chuckled. I wasn't breathing. I matched the voice to our kidnappers, they were hard to forget. One was a deep, raspy, smoker voice. Some leaves and twigs snapped, they were getting louder, closer. "Are we going to get those girls we failed at getting a few years ago?"

"Hey, man, we did get them," a lighter, smoother voice said, "That, that was great!" The voices closed in. I wanted to leave, but the ladder from the tree faced the intruders. It was too far to jump to another tree. I panicked.

*****Megan's POV

I sat by my window, gazing out at the forest. A flash of red caught my eye. I turned my attention towards it. A silhouette paced in our old tree house. I couldn't tell who it was. What worried me though, were the two large thuggish people advancing on its trunk. I didn't care who was in the tree house, but, knowing that was the kidnappers' space, flew to my phone. The ringing phone on the other end bothered me, until an annoyed voice answered.

"Deputy Director of the FBI, Sam Cullen speaking."

"CULLEN!"

"Ow, Miss Hamberlin, exercise some control in your volume!"

"Cullen, you gotta get here! Cai- Somers and I, we played in this tree house, see, and then we were kidnapped, and now these creepy dudes are going after the person in the tree house!"

"Slow down, miss Hamberlin! You say there is a possible Kidnapping?" I paced around to the window. The person in the tree house was about my age. The COD's were getting closer.

"Yes! So get your freaking swat team over here! Someone's gonna end up in their van; I just know it, Cullen. I've been there!"

"We'll have a full team within the hou-"

"NOW! Come on! They're at the tree practically!"

"Calm down, I've sent for a helicopter team. Stay on the line so they can get your GPS signal."

"O-okay." I wavered, remembering Caitlin and I, hanging out at the park, seconds later tossed into a van. Cullen kept me occupied with small talk, describing the people, but I honestly couldn't see anything since the sun had set. Moments later, I heard the whirring of the helicopter blades. The spotlight flooded my bedroom. I directed Cullen to send them south, slightly. I held my breath, waiting for the light to settle on the tree house.

"They have the house in their sights. They let down the ladder for the person in it to exit safely. We will have ground patrol looking for the perpetrators." Cullen's words stunned me. I had saved someone.

"You are welcome, Director. I will... meet you at the lab?"

"That would be wonderful, Miss Hamberlin."

(-x-)

Caitlin's POV

I saw a light hit Megan's room but it never registered to me that FBI was here and they had found me. "HEY, KID! COME 'ER! NOW! HURRY!"

Turning around, I saw Booth, hanging on a ladder with his arm outstretched as if to grab me. A look of recognition flashed across his face as I ran towards him. This was the first time I had ever broken Hamberlin and my 'Golden Rule'. I dropped the binoculars and clung to him, my arms around his neck. His arm was around my waist, pulling me between him and the ladder. I hooked my foot through one of the steps on the ladder and looked up as we were being pulled toward the helicopter above us. When the ladder reached the 'copter, we swung inside.

"Somers?" Booth shouted over the loud whirring. I nodded, and released him. He handed me a pair of clunky headphones, motioning for me to put them on. I did so. "Test, test. Somers, how could you pull a stupid stunt like that?"

"I didn't mean for the stupid kidnappers to come and attack me, tonight!" I retorted angrily, my eyes darkening several shades.

"I don't mean this, I mean deserting our system!" I was furious now, and didn't reply. "This would've resulted in your immediate expulsion from the team, but as Doctor Brennan and her assistant are away, we need an anthropologist at the lab. After this case, though, we'll talk. Come on, we're landing." Booth directed me out of the helicopter, and towards the elevator from the roof. Even after we got in, he maintained a heavy grip on my arm. I tried to wrestle away, but that caused him to tighten the already tight hand. He pulled me from the elevator and into the forensics room. On the steps to the platform sat the rest of the team: Megan, Kyrah, Kaylee, Shaun, Slade and Peter. At once, the other girls rose and crushed me in a group hug, even though none of us really were huggers. I acknowledged their hug, and shook them off. The guys, Shaun and Slade, at least, high-fived me with a 'welcome back!' Peter stood up last. He sort of cleared his throat before hugging me. I stopped. What. The. Heck. Was all I could think. A bazillion emotions ran past my eyes. Hate, sadness, euphoria, anger, love... All of it was amplified when I finally realized he was kissing me.

*****Peter's POV

What the heck did I just do? I don't even know. One moment she was walking through the door, Booth at her side, the next I was hugging her, and the next I was kissing her. What did I just do? I paused. This wasn't right. I don't mean it. I should pull out. No, I already started. Why was she furrowing her brow? I can't even think straight. She probably thinks I'm high or something. No, this isn't right. I can't think. Gah. I blinked back those thoughts, allowing my mind and eyesight to go fuzzy. It was a long time before she responded. I expected her to shove me, slap me, kick me, punch me, shoot me, or something that she usually does. Nope. She actually kissed me back, just for a second before I cleared my mind enough to pull away a little bit. I couldn't read her expression. She looked slightly confused, but happy, but her eyes suggested otherwise. The normally bright irises flashed a dark color before returning to normal. What on earth was that about? I blinked. I had to say something because it was getting really awkward with the team, Angela, Booth, and Cullen watching. I shifted my weight.

"I missed you." I was being blunt, I know. But what was I supposed to say? "I illegally took anti-depressants while you were gone!" "I love you!" "I took up cutting because I lost you." All were lies, of course, but still...

"I uh," She knitted her brow again. God, why was she so attractive? No, back to her. "Uh, missed you too..." I tried to step away, to head back to cyber crimes, to get away from the humility. My face was probably red, worsened from my pale hair. Scooting away, I turned to the hallway. She stopped me by slipping her hand into mine. I raised an eyebrow and turned to her. She half smiled and made to leave. "I missed you all, guys, I have to go...take care of something. I'll be in at eleven tomorrow, we'll solve this case guys, I swear. "She pulled me into the hallway, shutting the security door behind us.

"What the _hell_ was that?"

*****Kyrah's POV

"Well, that was incredibly awkward," I said, sitting back on the step.

"Nuh-uhn, sweetie, that was really cute. I didn't know he had it in him," Angela cooed, staring at the door to the hallway. "What do ya wanna bet they're making out?" We laughed.

"Way to go Peter!" Shaun said, giving a thumbs-up to the door. Megan rolled her eyes and head-slapped him. "Sorry..." We all fell silent, before I broke it.

"Like I said, aaaaaawkwaaaaaarrrrddddd." I drew out the word in a sing-song voice. "I'm going back to the body. I'll see what remains of the flesh, and then strip it..." I got up and started to walk away. I stopped suddenly, though, when a voice shouted behind me.

"WAIT! I'm coming with you!" I exhaled in annoyance. Megan, Slade, Kaylee, and the FBI people all laughed.

"Shaun," I acknowledged, still annoyed. I closed my eyes, and ground my teeth. Why is it when ever I do something, Shaun has to tag along? I opened my eyes. Shaun was still there. I inhaled, exhaled, and started walking again.

[-x-]

I finished placing the skull near the top of the spinal column, the flesh still sticky and gooey. I immediately scraped a few pieces of dirt sticking to the 8th rib into a jar. I teased just a little bit of flesh into another.

"Shaun, can you get a forensic odontologist here tomorrow? We'll need dentals done on this poor chap." He nodded and took a seat at the computer. I turned back to the remains. Taking off a glove, I leaned on the table, head in my hand. _Who are you, where are you from, do you have family, how did you die, who killed you, did you know your attacker? _Those questions ran through my head. I put on a new, uncontaminated, latex glove. Working at the head wound, I let my mind wander. _Why did they let us conduct autopsies and run tests? We are just a couple of teenagers. How could they be sure of anything?_

"I got the dentist. He'll be here 'round eleven thirty," He waited for my nod before donning gloves and examining the feet. The victim's clothes were long gone; they were probably made of cotton. He was barefoot, but showed evidence of being on his feet a lot, or so Shaun told me. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"Oh PUH-LEASE, don't get started on that again!" I warned, picking up one of the surgical knives, using it to gesture to the remains. The flesh was sort of falling from the bone in a gooey mess. I may find random insects or ugly animals cute, but there was no way these remains were 'beautiful'. "There is nothing here that you can say is beautiful." I moved the knife to point at him. He mumbled something that sounded like "Sep shoe." before continuing.

"No, it's just, Slade and Megan, Peter and Caitlin, they all found something here. It's kind of weird, but in a good way, that if you force people together, even if they hate each other, they can come to a resolution."

"And this pertains to the case _how_?"

"Oh, uh, no reason..."

"Good, now help me wheel this into the incubator room."

*****CAITLIN'S POV

"What the _hell_ was that?" I said, slamming Peter against the wall.

"I can honestly say that I don't know." He held up his hands in defense.

"How dare you! And in front of the others, too!"

"I said I have no-" I cut him off by slapping him. Hard. Hard enough that it might bruise, if I'm lucky. "Caity, I-" I slapped him again.

"Don't ever call me Caity," I hissed, turning to leave. I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Please, Caitlin, give me a chance."

"As if." I ran out, leaving Peter huddled in the corridor.

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	20. Chapter 19: A Moment of Meditation

***** Slade's POV

I was stupid. Unbelievable. But then again, I wasn't the one who kissed one of the 'prohibited' ones. Then why did I feel so bad? Was it because I kissed her first, and not Peter kissing Caitlin first? I sighed, looking out the window of the charger I was in.

"No." DiNozzo said, his hands gripped firmly to the wheel.

"Whaa?" I furrowed my brow together. Did everything I think come out of my mouth?

"No, it's not your fault. Girls are hard to dig into. It just takes time." He must have seen my expression. "Ha. The look on your face says everything. Even though I am a field agent. Senior field agent that is, I can also be a profiler. You are in distress, and it is never your fault. When a girl cries, the first thing you think is what you did wrong, even though you are one hundred percent positive you really didn't do anything wrong." He turned every once in a while to look at me.

"None of that made sense." I looked back out the window, where we were passing a park. "I just wish that I never had some of my feelings that I don't even have names for!"

"Just never try to carry the world on your shoulders. That is everyone's job that lives in the world. You want to tell me what happened? Of course, when I promise stuff, I keep them. I won't tell." His voice was soothing.

"I, I just-" I had no idea if I could say anything to him. There was a trust thing going on and I didn't like it. Meg and Caitlin had a trust issue with boys; I was hard to trust people. Sometimes I just wanted trust to be gone, or everyone gave out trust so easily. "I don't know what to do. The girls' have this little trust thing going on, and I did something to break it."

"Well, there is only one thing you can do..."

Megan's POV*******

I clenched my eyes closed and my finger hovered over the power button on my phone. I hit it, knowing I couldn't avoid anything that I didn't want to happen, but already did.

"Droid!" It responded as I turned it on. My hand vibrated and I hit the highlighted action, view now. _Megan, I don't care what you said. I still like you. There. I said it. I. Like. You. And, frankly, I couldn't care less on the mistakes you made, or the promises you made. What we had going was good. I like a girl that can do more damage to a punching bag than her bare fists. I like a girl that would break her leg doing something stupid. Nothing you can say can change that. I like you. _

My lab started to fill with the sound of sobbing. Done by me, of course. He didn't know that Caity and I were going to be friends...forever. Probably not the best of friends, but the one whose fates were intertwined. _No. You don't understand. I can't like you anymore. It never would have worked. I know I shouldn't have done that, and now, I never will even try to do something like that again. EVER. _Again, my finger hovered over the send button, but my mind had made up its choice. 'Message now sent' appeared in a box on my phone.

The floor was spattered with paintbrushes of all sizes. It was funny because I kicked them to where they made paths, from here to the door, to my massspec., to the computer. The wax paper was splattered with all sorts of paints, all different colors.

Slade's POV******

My phone buzzed, and I reached for it. Crap, it better not be from Megan. _No. You don't understand. I can't like you anymore. It never would have worked. I know I shouldn't have done that, and now, I never will even try to do something like that again. EVER. _I bit my lip, trying to suppress a sob.

_No. I can't not keep myself from you. It's not possible. It would kill me on the inside. _I hit the send button. The forensics platform screeched loudly, forcing me to tear my eyes from the screen. I jumped up from my spot on the steps and swiped my card. The intruder carried a wheel-around cart and a notebook. He was wearing black scrubs, Doc martens, and these glasses with four frames, two of them movable. My look must've been confused, because the man introduced himself.

"Doctor Baker, Forensic Odontologist. I have an appointment with a," He squinted at a line in his notebook, "Shaun Harris?" I smirked. Leave it to Shaun to make an appointment in his name, and not the FBI's.

"Right this way," I said, leading him towards the incubator room. I scanned my card at the door and ushered Dr. Baker in. The two M.E. Trainees and future forensic anthropologist loomed over the clear box, watching the beetles finish eating. I cleared my throat. "Everyone, this is Doctor Baker, the Forensic Dentist."

"Odontologist," he corrected, pulling open his bag and taking out a smaller rolled package. "I understand you have some remains that need to have a dental profile completed?" Caitlin stepped up, skull and jaw in hand.

"Yes. Here. The beetles are done with him." She placed the skull into the Dentist's gloved hands. He laid it on a cork ring on one of the desks, unrolled the package, and began to investigate it using the plethora of tools he brought. Caitlin went back to the remains. Kyrah and Shaun left to go talk to Megan about the flesh samples.

"Caitlin, Booth wants age, race, gender, height, and the missing person's cases that match the description ASAP." She pointed to a manila folder on one of the steel desks without looking up. She pulled one of the...leg bones, I think, out of the box, shaking off the insects devouring it. I picked up the file and flicked through it. It had all the specifics. There were no pages on the missing persons.

"You'll need to see Meg for those," She said reading my mind. I groaned.

"Do I have to?" She shot me a look. "Fine..."

Megan's POV*****

I was typing on my computer, trying to find missing person reports. The only problem was that I didn't have a date to look up. I turned around to look back at my wall. Geez. How can I do all of this?

"Ummm." I didn't turn around because I knew it was Slade.

"What?" I looked at my computer, ignoring him, but then concentrating on my phone. "Frick." I mumbled under my breath, seeing his text.

"Here." He put down vials of DNA samples and turned to walk out. "I don't mean to." The door closed.

The phone rang as I lifted it up to my mouth. Pick up, pick up.

"Hello?"

"Caity." I croaked. "You have to come down here."

"Hang on, I've got to-" She started.

"See you in two." I hit the end button.

Caitlin's POV******

Why? Why does she do this to me? First, she breaks our promise, then she wants to console me into making a deal. This was how Hamberlin works. I wasn't going to move this time. I went back to the victim's pelvis, double checking the age I set on the records. The victim was obviously male, tall, and mature, but young. Only in his late teens. Nineteen or twenty, I'd guess. I replaced the bones back on the table, and turned to Dr. Baker. He looked up, his eyes impossibly magnified by his glasses. He put the mirror and swab he was using on the tray next to him and switched the lenses on his glasses around.

"Miss Somers, I am nearly complete, save for one test left. If you would be as kind as to shut the lights off and assist me..." His voice showed hinting of a slight English accent. I nodded, flicking the florescent lighting off. The dentist handed me a pair of wraparound goggles that were tinted purple. He was about to shine a flashlight on the lower jaw, when my phone rang again. I knew who it was, and ignored it. "Well, aren't you going to answer that?" I was beginning to dislike Dr. Baker.

"No, please just continue," I waved him on. He shrugged and shone the light on the teeth. Underneath the lower left bicuspid, appeared a brighter color than the other muted hues. He picked up the swab and a small vial. The phone rang again.

"Are you going to answer that?" I groaned.

"No, I'll let it ring, and call them back later. Can you please hurry; I need to place tissue markers!" He grumbled something, then swabbed the brighter area. He returned the swab to the vial, which instantly turned a bright red. He scribbled something in his notebook before tearing out the page and handing it to me.

"Here you are," He stood there, looking at me. His gaze became uncomfortable after a matter of seconds.

"I'll see to the FBI paying you." He immediately turned around and began to pack up things. The phone rang AGAIN, and I snatched up the receiver before Dr. Baker could protest.

"Somers."

"Where have you been? I've been calling you for ages."

"Peter, what do you want?" I was agitated. The only two people who called me, I really didn't want to talk to.

"I finished the VFA analysis you wanted."

"And?"

"And this guy was underweight. Only 17.5% BMI."

"Go tell Hamberlin or something."

"Hamberlin?"

"Megan..."

"No, I mean what's with the last name?"

"Why do you want to know? Why does anyone want to know? It's not as if anything I promised, or anyone who actually cares about me would actually want to know why I am calling people by their last name!"

"Okay, first off, cut the attitude! Next, I was wondering if you wa-"

"What attitude? You honestly couldn't care less what I think!"

"..Wanted to go-" The phone beeped.

"Sorry, I have another caller, _Parker_, adios!" I hung up, ignoring the other caller as well. God, I hate high school, I thought, tooooo much drama.

*****Megan's POV

I couldn't think straight. I tried analyzing the victim's Toxicology screen, but I didn't have enough of a sample. I tried painting again, but my mind kept wandering. I called Caitlin, but the line went dead. I sat at my desk with my head in my hands, staring at the black screen on my phone. Slades text didn't anger me, like it should've, but instead caused me to cry some more. I really like him, don't I? But if Caitlin's mad, then we can't be together, right? But then Peter goes and kisses Caitlin. What happened in the hallway after they kissed? Did they fight, or did they make out, like Angela said? I needed to talk to someone. I tried Caitlin again, this time I got the busy signal. I was close to texting Slade back, but something stopped me. I ran through my mental contacts. Kyrah wouldn't understand, unless it involved food or death. Peter and Caitlin are out. Kaylee would, I bet. I picked up my phone and speed dialed. It only had to ring twice before she picked up.

"Kaylee. I-I-I need someone to talk to."

"I'm here; What do you need?"

"Can I come over?" I didn't want to stay in here.

"I'm still at the office."

"Where?"

"Floor one, room-" She paused "-165, I think."

"I'll be there in five."

"Okay. It'll be fine, Meg."

"I hope so." I hung up and grabbed the drawstring bag, filling it with my paints, phone, and new laptop. I didn't plan on returning after I talked with Kay.

[-x-]

I turned and faced the room. 165. I knocked. Kaylee answered it, along with someone I hadn't seen in a while, and never wanted to if I was upset. Dr. Sweets. I looked down, hiding my tear stained cheeks and red eyes. It didn't work.

"Megan, please, come in. What's troubling you?" I rolled my eyes, crossed my arms, and looked at him. He had to be around sixteen, but his two doctorates displayed on the wall suggested otherwise. I looked at Kaylee.

"Lance, I don't think she wants to talk to you..."

"Oh. Do you think you've got this handled?"

"Yes, now leave," she pointed at the door. He shrugged and left.

Kaylee's POV*****

"Please. Just listen, d-d-don't interrupt." She heaved a breath and continued. "J-j-just listen." She whipped her head towards the door. "Hang on a sec." She stalked towards it. Her hand crept to the door, and waited a second.

The door flung open, and Slade was standing there, but jumped so hard his back hit the other wall. Her depression flashed to anger. "WHAT?" She stood over him like a puppy being abused.

"I uh, need to talk to... Sweets..." You could practically see the steam coming from her ears. Lance stuck his head out of his door.

"Did I hear my name?"

"Yeah, this idiot needs to see you."

"Idiot? There is some definite tension between you two," He squeezed between them. "Let's take this into the offi-"

"NO!" Megan and Slade shouted simultaneously. I slunk back into my corner of the couch, watching the scene.

"Please, we can sort out your issues and you can continue your lives." Slade stopped quivering. Megan almost stopped steaming. They drug themselves into the room, sitting on _my_ couch. I jumped off and relocated to the other Psychologist chair. Lance began.

"I'm sensing there's a deep, underlying, romantic connection between you, but something's keeping you apart..." The door banged open. Kyrah appeared, heading towards me with Shaun trailing not far behind.

"Kay we got an ID on the victim. Jason Wilkes. AND a potential suspect, with motive. We need that background check!"

"Kyrah, I'm in the middle of something..." I emphasized Megan and Slade sitting across from me.

"Sorry, hey! Sweets, my man! How's it going?" Shaun and Lance high-fived.

"Good good. Hey, I got this thing in my office; I thought you'd like to see. I'll go get it." He ran off. Shaun sat down between Megan and Slade.

"Hey Slade. Ouch, are you here for that thing with you and-"

"Shut up."

"Touchy..." The room was getting chaotic. Kyrah shoved a paper into my face.

"We got a hit on the dentals. And in the evidence, they found a torn-up wallet with, get this, someone else's school ID. Aaron Scott's."

"That's nice, Kyr-"

"ARGH! I hate my life right now!" Caitlin stormed in, adding to the jumbled up chaotic atmosphere in the room. Peter jogged in behind her.

"Caity, I've been looking everywhere for y-" She cut him off by socking him in the eye.

"Don't call me Caity," She hissed. Lance came back, carrying a small plastic box. He set it by the door.

"Shaun, here's that liz- What happened in here?" Everyone kept arguing or complaining. "This wasn't supposed to happen. The Bureau had me pick you guys so that you were compatible. This wasn't how I planned! I got it. GROUP SESSION!" Everyone quieted down and a few got up to leave. Lance slammed and locked the door. "No one's going anywhere until we sort this out."

Megan shoved herself off the couch and onto the floor. "I'm not sitting next to those losers." She flung a finger towards the boys.

"Now, you wait just one second." Slade stood up, his hands in fists.

"Hey!" Sweets shouted. "All of you, off the couch. It's time for meditating." Sweets moved the chairs around to make more room. "First, your phones should be on the desk. Second, find a comfortable place."

"Mmm-hmm." Megan was sitting cross-legged, ahead of the game, Kyrah was across from her. It looked like they were having a mental conversation going on. Eyes closed, palms in prayer position. "Good, good!" Sweets complemented them. He jumped onto the table, leading everyone.

"Now, to truly meditate, you must find an omengeeah..." Sweets jumped onto the table, letting his hands fall against his knees. "Everyone's is different...Ohmnimmagurrydivva." His eyes were closed. One eye peeked open and he saw that hardly anyone was doing anything. "Everyone, start now."

Caitlin was sitting cross-legged, mumbling to herself, and then got louder..."Ohmnimmakillpeterah...Ohmnimmakillpeterah." Peter faced her.

"Ohmdalashutup...Ohmdalashutup..."

"Ohmwillapeasashutup...Ohmwillapeasashutup..."

"Please, Caitlin, Peter, Cut it out! We are here to conduct a relaxing stress relieving session to overcome the personal issues in your life. Now, everyone, channel your inner Omengeeah...Ohmnimmagurrydivva..." I rolled my shoulders and decided to just go with it.

"Ohmnadaahahh..."

"Good, good Kaylee, keep with it Shaaahhhhashaahshaaa," He attempted to calm us with the steady Shashaashashaa-ing.

"Sweets, this ain't working for me. Can we get on with it? We gotta murderer to catch," We all sort of spoke at once.

"Okay, okay, I get it; grown-up teenagers don't want to do something embarrassing like meditate. That's cool. Let's see... Alphabetical order... By last name. Something that's been troubling you... Kaylee... Butler. You are first." I looked around and gulped. I knew he did that on purpose. Sorting by last name, I was bound to be first. He knew I knew that I should reveal something personal to get the ball rolling. I gulped again.

"Uh. When I was-was-was little, I was kidnapped, as you all probably know. What you don't is-is-is-is that Dawes, or his unnamed accomplice, murdered my parents. I can't get over it. I couldnt've stopped them from getting killed." I covered my eyes and leaned forward, putting my elbows on my knees.

"Nice. I see. That explains the constant yearning for some control in life... Kyrah! You are next!" She looked up, eyes wide.

"When I was eight, I think, I was victim in an explosion, the doctor told me. And now, any hinting of an explo- causes me to freak out... Post... Traumatic... Stress... Disorder..."

"Good Good, Slade Easton. Now, I'd like it if you could address your issue with Megan."

"I love her."

*****Caitlin's POV

Wait, what the crap did he just say? That's it. I'm outta here. I stood up and speed walked to the door. Trying the knob, it was still locked. I was too impatient so I lifted my foot and kicked it open. Thank god for pick jumps in ice skating, built the muscle in my legs. A hand grabbed my arm as the door was closing. Turning around, I saw Peter.

"GET OFF ME!"

"You're not disappearing again."

"I never said I was!" I scream, struggling to get his vise grip off me.

"I know you Caity. And I know when you're lying." I froze at his words and stalked towards him, jamming a finger in his chest as he backed up.

"You DON'T know ANYTHING about me. And don't call me CAITY! I TOLD YOU THAT I WANTED NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU AFTER YOU KISSED ME. I DON'T TRUST YOU! I NEVER WILL! WHY CAN'T YOU GET THAT IN YOUR STUPID LITTLE HEAD?" Turning around, I sprinted away before he could come out of the shock and terror to catch me again. As soon as I turned the corner I heard...

"CATCH HER! DON'T LET HER GO!"

I sprinted to the lobby and a stronger hand grabbed my arm and swung me around, lifting me up. Booth. "Booth! LET ME GO!"

"Not a chance. You're not pulling that little disappearing act you did before." I started to kick him so he through me over his shoulder and clung onto my legs.

"Put her down Booth, I'll talk to her." Looking behind me, in front of Booth, was Dr. Temperance Brennan, The only person I could trust at the moment.

"Bones, I don't think that is such a good idea."

"What, you don't think I can watch over a 14 year old?"

"She's got you there." I mumbled as I was dropped to the floor, Temperance grabbing my wrist and pulling me to her car. I turned just in time to see the frightened look on Peter's face as he was struggling to get past Booth and towards me as we drove off.


	21. Chapter 20: Ooh! Shiny!

*****Kyrah's POV

"Well, that went well." I said flatly, even though it was sarcastic. I looked around. Peter and Booth wrestled; finally Booth just handcuffed him to an available door knob. He still struggled. Sweets stared at the door, then to Peter, then back to the door. Megan looked like she wanted to throttle Slade, but at the same time relieved. Slade held his head in his hands, mumbling something along the lines of "I shouldn't have said that..." over and over. Shaun picked up the little plastic box, examining the reptile inside. Kaylee kept frantically dialing Caitlin. I got up from my post on the couch, stretched, and wandered over to the door. Peter's shouts echoed down the hallway. I stood in the doorway.

"Hey, Kay, I still need those background checks." I left, heading for none other than Booth. "Booth, un-handcuff him. We need him to trace Dr. Brennan and Caitlin's cells." I could hear the handcuffs unclick as I continued to walk down the hall, frantic footsteps following me. I smiled.

[-x-]

"Hey, guys I got a signal!" Peter screamed as he jumped out of his chair and began to bounce around.

Looking at the jumbled mass of numbers and pictures, I was confused. "Well, where are they?"

"They're right outside!" Oh, this can't be good. I was about to tell him there was something up, but he had already taken off full speed with Booth on his heels. As soon as the rest of us caught up, Peter was on the floor, back against the wall, with his face in his hands. Booth was letting out a string of cuss words and holding a phone, shaking it angrily at no one. Looking down I saw a shoebox containing a cell phone and a note. I picked up the letter and read 'nice try, were not stupid. We'll come back, just give us time. We didn't run away, we're still in state. Don't look for us, Temperance and Caitlin'. Great.

Megan's POV********

I got up and left amidst all the chaos. I was too furious to talk to anybody, let alone be in the same room with them. The city bus took me two blocks from my house. I walked with my head down. Tears couldn't come past this anger point. I stopped at the park, sitting down on the grass. Crap. I face-palmed.

I had to go back to the yard. I forgot my bag. And you would think that someone like me wouldn't forget it. I got up to go, acting like everything was cool and got back onto the bus.

I sat down in the back, my head down and my arms crossed. "Um, excuse me?" came a voice from in front of me. It sounded like it belonged to a little boy.

I ignored it. A random person on the street didn't need my rage. "You dropped this." I flicked my eyes up to see a small girl holding out my phone. She looked about six with a green, white and red sundress on. Her blond hair was in pigtails.

"Thanks." I snatched it out of her hand, shoving it in my pocket. She turned and skipped back over to her mom, who started talking furiously to her.

My stop came and I hopped off. I texted Kyrah to see if she was still inside. I got a reply saying she was. I asked her if she could let me in.

The door opened and Booth walked out instead. "Thanks for coming back. We got more samples for you, and you really need to check them out." He handed me my drawstring bag. "You left it in Sweets room."

I ripped it out of his hands, reaching into it and grabbing my card. "That's why I came back." I snarled. I still wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. "Have someone send them to my lab." I ditched him and swung open the door to the stairs, skipping two at a time. I thudded on my level and swiped my card to open the door. My lab door was closed, as it should have been. There was a small package at my foot. From Slade, presumably. I kicked it into the door of my lab. It collided with a thud. I picked it up and opened the door to my lab. I set it on the table then turned on my computers. While they warmed up, I turned to the box on the table. I peeled open the top, to find a card waiting to be opened. I flung it on the floor, going to come to that later.

Oh my gosh. Really? I picked up a big red glass heart. All the facets sparkled brilliantly. He had to have bought this. I set it back in its place in the box. The card, now in my hands said: "I love you. There is no doubt about it." At the bottom of the card was little writing saying 'handcrafted by Eastoncrafts'. Followed by a little copyright sign. The front top right hand corner had a red heart with the initials-MH and SE.

I set it on my desk and walked back to the computers. The door opened and closed. I turned around and Slade was standing there, his hand on the door, head looking down.

"I can't do it anymore, Meg. I can't. I can't live a lie. I can't live without you." Slade admitted, walking toward me.

"Neither can I." I replied, slowing starting my way towards him. My brain was screaming at me, in Caitlin's voice. _NO, Hamberlin, NO! _I fought myself, getting closer. "Slade...I think...I think I-"

I didn't get to finish. Our lips met and every one of my problems melted away. He picked me up and twirled me around. I really couldn't live a lie. I did love him, I really did. I didn't give crap what Caitlin thinks.

Kyrah's POV******

I went down to Megan's lab to give her the mushy skin samples. I swiped my card and the elevator doors opened to Megan's lab. Two seconds before I opened it, Megan opens it but is turned with her back facing me to go back to her computers. Slade is there, watching her.

"Umm...I'm interrupting, aren't I? I think I know what's going on he- ooh! Shiny!" I went for a sparkly red heart. "Who's SE?"

"NO! Don't you touch that!" She came to tackle me before I reached it. "Didn't your mama ever teach you, 'if it's not yours, don't touch it!'?"

"No. Should she have?" I turned to face her. She retreated to her computer.

"Besides, we weren't doing anything. I was just showing Slade something under the black-light. You should see it too." She talked as she closed the door again. I snatched up a pair of infa-red glasses and shoved them on my head. The lights flickered out and Slade held up a black-light.

"Here." He handed it to her. A second passed before Slade let go of both Megan's hand and the black-light...Whoa. Is their connection back together? I dismissed it for Megan didn't like Slade. At least that is what I thought. I went back to the pretty glowy things.

*******Slade's POV

She loves me back! I could shout for joy. After she showed Kyrah the samples, I left. I knew they were going to talk about something kind of on me.

The elevators moved slowly, and I decided I wouldn't leave. I turned back to go back to her, but I waited until they got on the subject of me. I realized how conceited that was. I shrugged and walked in. They were both laughing, Megan walking unsteadily to her computer. I went and steadied her. She looked up and smiled. "You came back." She whispered.

"Kyrah, can I have those other samples?" She shimmied out of my grasp, where she fit perfectly in, and ignored me for good reason. She took the samples out of Kyrah's hand, who then went over to the radio. "Ugh. How are we going to get this killer? The trail is cold and all I have are these samples. Of dirt and mushy...meat...gross stuff." Meg took out her laptop and set it on a blank, two blank pages. She started typing on one, then switching it to the other.

I went over to look at the screen she typed on. Once I finished reading, she must have seen me. "What are you doing? Get off of there!" She shouted. I jumped back, offended. "I am just writing case notes!"

"Sorry you have all your personal stuff on there!" I replied.

"Whoa!" Kyrah hit the play button for her iPod and was walking back into the main lab. "What were you doing on something that was her's anyway?" Both she and Meg ganged up on me.

All the sudden. The anger shifted. Meg turned to Kyrah. "'Crocey, we have to tell you something." She tilted her head to one side, and then snapped it back up.

"Hm?" She questioned, fiddling with the key on a chain around her neck.

"Well," Megan began.

******Kyrah's POV

What? There was no way... _Them... TOGETHER? _I shook off my shock. Caitlin would kill to know this.

"Well I feel left out. Fist you two getting all...uhhhh," I shuddered, "Then Peter makin' a move on Caity... Now you two again."

"What about Shaun?" Slade brought up. What about him? That actually got me thinking. How could I have known him for practically ever yet know so little about him?

"What about him?"

"He is so into you even though you can't tell."

"Really? 'Cause I always got the 'Blond ditz' type vibe from him." It was true. He didn't seem like the analytical brainy type.

Megan and Slade exchanged a knowing glance as if to suggest I was so clueless. "Am not!" I came back.

"Not what?" They said at the same time. Weird. Like they planned it.

"Clueless."

We heard the elevator beep, and knew it was Shaun. I dove under Meg's desk and was thankful that she kept the automatic glass door open. He started talking as he walked in. Meg had gotten up and moved to her computer, Slade behind the table. He saw Meg first, and gave a greeting, then jumped when Slade moved.

"Uh, hey, have either of you seen Kyrah, she dropped her notebook, and I came to give it back to her..." He showed them my green notebook. Oh snap. Not the green one. Let's hope he didn't read it.

"Mmm. No. Can't say I have. Is there something going on between you two though?" Meg carried a tray of vials over to her masspec. "Just thought I'd ask because you seem to like her."

His jaw dropped a few feet. "Am I really that obvious? Do you think she knows? What am I going to do? What should I do?" He looked liked he was going to hyperventilate.

"No, I don't _think_ she knows." Emphasis on think. She walked in view of me and winked, not letting Shaun know about my presence.

"I think you should tell her. You know, not all girls will smack you like Caitlin does. Just saying." Slade shrugged. "I mean, look where me and-"

He stopped himself just in time. He screwed up. "You and...?" He wanted an answer. "Tell me, or...this book gets burned...at the STAKE! I think I know what's going on here!" He said, eying the pair.

"That's funny. That is what Ky-"

"Kyrah was here?" He fired.

"You didn't let me finish. That is what Kyrah texted me after I told her some stuff." Meg flipped out her phone. Trying to get evidence. If Meg wanted to make a totally fake text with the time and everything, she could do it...Typing furiously, she showed him something. "You see, how can you compete with that? Proof." She took her phone back.

"I see. What is up with you and Slade then? You two seem to like each other..." His gaze flickered between the two. Slade turned, blushing.

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you with a vial of oxygen and put it into-" Meg had her hand on her hips, leaning forward.

"Okay! I get it! I knew it, I promise not to tell. I'm not the only one with secrets you know."

"Ha, then neither am I." I couldn't stay there anymore. I walked into the main lab.

"Fricking...a-hole." Shaun was swearing under his breath. He looked up and was slammed with an awkward silence. Meg went back over to Slade, lacing her hand in his.

Megan's POV******

His hand was warm. And mine fit perfectly into his. I left the awkward silence with the other two. "I am fast to give up. I am done with this case." I sighed, resting my head on his shoulder.

"Errr..." Kyrah let out a strange sound.

"Ummm...How's it going?" He asked. Everyone knew it was an awkward moment. Ha ha, I chuckled to myself.

"Pretty good...You thought I was going to smack you?" Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, but it was a trick to get going.

"Well, what I've seen so far, Caitlin does all the time." Shaun replied.

"Caitlin is fricking immature!" I had to step in. "Haven't you noticed she always runs away from the problem instead of coming to face it? Ever notice how she smacks and kicks? She is just too afraid to accept what she has in life." I was yelling.

"Whoa, chill." Slade squeezed my hand, forcing me to calm down.

"She has a point there though." Shaun scratched his chin, thinking. As if on cue, his eyes widened and his hand shot to his neck and hung there again. "Oh, uh, Kyrah," He said her name slowly. This was getting more and more awkward by the second. "I suppose you, uh, may have heard most of that conversation..."

"All of it, actually." She half squinted, slightly grimacing. I wanted to scream 'Get a room, lovebirds!' or 'Kiss her already!' but something stopped that. Shaun's face fell.

"Oh, uh, I'll be getting back to the evidence then, huhn?" Kyrah's expression was blank; I couldn't tell what she was thinking. She took in a breath, slightly shaking.

"Shaun, wait." Everyone's eyes opened; Shaun's in surprise, mine in _mock_ surprise, and Slade's because I just squeezed his hand a lot harder than usual. "Maybe Sweets was right. Maybe we a-a-are compatible. Rationally speaking, even in the beginning," She was speaking slow, breathing deeply every few words, "Slade and Megan were partners." I played with our fingers, tightly wound together, smiling. "Peter and Caitlin were stuck together, whether they like it or not. And, and us. The two enterprising Forensic Pathology Technicians in training. I don't know."

Every (analytical) sentence she said brought them closer together.

"I don't know what?"

"I don't know if I reciprocate your feelings. I want to, and some gut feeling, however illogical, is screaming at me to, but somewhere I don't think this is right." She hooked her thumbs into the front pockets on her jeans. Nononononononononono! was all I could think. They were obviously smitten ('_Smitten? Who on earth says that anymore,_ My mind sidetracked.) With each other. I turned to look at Slade, who was giving his friend the 'don't screw this up' look. I smiled and curled my head more on his shoulder.

"Then stop thinking! I haven't said it to you, personally, yet, but, Kyrah, I like you." She smiled, looking at her shoes.

"I believe, in the books and movies that I have seen, now is where we hold hands and embrace; kissing is _optional_." She stressed the last word before engulfing him in a hug. She nervously repositioned her arms. Then head. Then arms again, before stopping. You gotta admit, it was pretty funny seeing the two lab rats attempt to hug. He put his chin on her head.

"I have a feeling of Déjà vu..."

"Nope."

"No, I'm certain we've done this before. Right after we solved that last case." Kyrah smirked into his scrub top.

"One side affect of my medication is often a dream-like state of mind. That really happened? I didn't dream it?"

"Yeah." I almost applauded. Almost. I turned to Slade. He didn't give me a chance to speak before capturing my lips in his. It was short and sweet; just passing the awkward time.

"Thanks for the heart... you made that?" I whispered.

"Yeah, my mom does glasswork a lot... I snuck into the studio the other day..."

"Thanks," I kissed his cheek.

*****CAITLIN'S POV

Man, hidden cameras are hilarious! The look on Peter's face mostly confused me, though he looked terrified for some reason, lost. Tempe came up behind me and grabbed my arm, turning me in the direction of the door. "Where are we going?" I asked

"The Grand Canyon."

"Why?"

"Because this late at night, nobody is there and it is such a good place to think."

"But it is also very cold and a major place for suicide jumpers, so don't you think that would be a major spot for patrolling Booths?"

"He won't find us, trust me." I had no room to argue 'cause she had already shoved me through the door of her car and had revved the engine to life.

The palm trees slowly disappeared as scattered humans began to come in view climbing into their cars. We pulled up to a gate and a security officer pulled up. "Sorry ma'am, canyon's closed."

I was about to say that we had to give up and find a different place when she pulled out a tag, covering it halfway with her fingers, it said F.B.I. instead of F.B.I. partners. With her picture as verification and a brief explanation of we got a call of a possible jump and that it was bring a trainee to work day, he opened up the gate and we drove right in.

"I just wish life were easier." My head rested on my knees, me on a rock, overhanging the canyon.

Brennan sat next to me. "If you noticed, life isn't simple, if it was, there would be no reason to live it. Also, if you really are observant, you are really running away from your problems, hoping they go away. That's childish." She told me.

"I kind of noticed." I sighed. "I hate facing problems. It just isn't me. If I do, I become frustrated. I try, but I never seem to get it." I didn't want to even try with Peter. He was just too weird."

"What about him then?" We both knew what she was talking about.

I turned to face away from her, tears escaping my eyes. "What am I supposed to do? I have mixed feelings for him."

"Mixed feelings get everybody. You just have to let your heart decide. That is all I can tell you because no one can always tell you what to do. That is another part of life. Yes, you might fail, but always know that if you don't take chances in life, you never get any further from where you started. It is simple, but hard."

"Well, I can't just go up to him and say, 'I'm sorry Peter, but I've been mean to you. Can you forgive me?' Yeah, that wouldn't work for me." I imitated what I said then shook my head.

"Actually, you can...Or, you can ignore him for a little while, then when he finally has had enough, then you can tell him." She shrugged. The wind blew in our faces. The sun was gone and a half moon rose.

"Then, what am I going to do with Leesey? I mean, Megan?" I turned, I really expected advice from her. I needed it from her.

"You cannot stop love from happening. Megan has found it. Even though you promised, you can't go through out your lives not trusting people, especially guys. I think Megan understands that. You have to trust men, and boys. You will work with them, and trust is really needed. Just think if DiNozzo and Ziva didn't trust each other. They would most likely be dead. And that's that." Brennan spoke softly, shocking me with her un-Brennan like phrases. "Now, I think it's time to go back, what do you think?"

Peter's POV******

What was I going to do? I rubbed my cheek where she had slapped me. I looked like crap. My eye was black and the right side of my face was a purplish, greenish color. Sometimes love was dumb. I still liked her, but what was her problem? I tried almost everything, except she had a pact with Megan that they wouldn't let a guy come between them. What about Megan and Slade though. Didn't they like each other though? It just wasn't fair. Before walking out of the bathroom, I splashed water on my face.

I was going to go to Megan and see how she did it. I watched them kiss, and Megan didn't start punching and kicking and slapping at Slade, right? I walked out of the bathroom and opened the door to the stairs. I needed to talk to her now, I couldn't stop and wait. I swiped my key to the forensics platform. Megan's door was opened, so I walked in.

"Uh, Megan?" I called.

"Yes?" Four other voices answered.

"Very funny, you guys. Where's Megan?" I looked around, hoping to see her. I saw Slade, Kyrah, and Shaun, but no Megan. "And thanks for starting the party without me."

"I'm right here." She rolled out from underneath the table on a dolly. "I was looking at the dirt samples on the glass, so I could see both the top and the bottom. Kind of recreating the scene. Top soil, middle soil, bottom soil...Anyway, what's up?" She looked like a mechanic, rubbing her hands with a towel.

"I don't know what to do about Caitlin." They all looked at each other, then back at me.

"Well, you've come to the right place." She said, "Come sit, and I'll pop out the sodas."

Megan's POV*****

"What is this? Dr. Phil?"

"Kyrah, shut up and drink your Mountain Dew," I snapped, turning from her to the group. "Think of this as therapy, minus the Sweets." I finished tossing sodas from my evidence freezer. Dealing out a Dr. Pepper to Peter, I urged him to speak.

"Oh, uh, I didn't expect you all to be here... uh..."

"Out with it!"

"Megan, what am I going to do?"

"What?" I took a looooong sip from my Coke.

"This pact," He said, talking with his hands, "that you and Caity have..."

"What about it?"

"Well, you didn't freak out when I, when I, when I-"

"Kissed her?" Finished Slade from behind his Pepsi. It was a while before Peter answered.

"Yes. Why? She seemed really upset after you and Slade..."

"Kissed?" I supplied, threading my fingers in Slade's for emphasis. "No, I didn't, because, because...Because I forgot. I had a lot on my mind..." She fiddled her hand in Slade's, then continued. "Why would I freak out? It's not really like me to flip out when somebody does something...hypocritical. I felt bad, and you two seemed to like each other so why would I flip out? It seemed like I shouldn't do anything, so I didn't. That is why."

"Then why is she so, so _bothered_ when I kissed her?

"I dunno, but I'm going to pick up the background checks Kay ran. She just texted me," Kyrah stood up, and made to leave.

"Wait," Shaun said, "Megan said no phones!"

"Are you coming or not?" They scampered off down the hallway.

"Is there something between th-"

"Sorta. Anyway, where were we? Oh, yeah, I have no problem. Maybe you should just talk to her."

"NONONONONO! I can't! Do you see these bruises?"

"Kinda hard to miss them, man," Slade said. "I hear cover-up works wel-"

"Okay, point taken. I can't be hurt again!"

"Then call her." I practically saw her mind working at the tumblers of that new idea, trying to find a loophole.

"Fine. Tomorrow morning."

"No tonight. I happen to know that Caitlin goes to sit on the roof when she gets a call late at night." His face flashed relief, then confusion, then a slight expression of horror.

"I-I can't. It's not, it's not right. That's too, too, er..."

"I'll give you her address." Caity would've killed me on the spot, but, she needs this. She needs a relationship to help her get past the kidnapping. I added the street and number into Peter's Phone.

"Go get her," I winked and ushered him into the hallway.


	22. Chapter 21: Crash of thunder

*****Shaun's POV

"Here." Kaylee handed us each a file. I took Aaron Scott's folder and flicked it open. Average white guy, about fifteen, blond-brown hair, hazel eyes. Nothing popped out until I reached his criminal past. Just earlier this year, March, he was busted for drug possession, but the charges were dropped for insufficient evidence. Now, now, almost nine months later, he was supporting his druggie dad and older sister by working two jobs part time. His grades were in the toilet, probably because he skipped everyday but Wednesdays. I looked up; Kyrah was thumbing through the victim's profile.

"Jason Wilkes. 17 and a half. Went to the same school: Monroe High School. He was only a sophomore. Held back three times. Otherwise, an okay ki- Hello! Criminal record. Attempting to buy cigarettes at fifteen convenience stores. As a minor, he couldn't."

"Okay, well, we better show these to Booth..." I took the file from her, and grabbed her hand.

"Fine," She grumbled, still not used to _us. _We walked hand-in-hand down the hallway and onto the forensics platform. Kyrah swiped her card, allowing us access. Booth was up there, hovering over Dr. Brennan. Apparently she and Caitlin were back.

"Agent Booth?" His head snapped up at my words. "We have a possible suspect, with motive; we just need to know if the blow came at the angle we found."

"What?" It was late and we all wanted to go home. Kyrah stepped in to clarify.

"Earlier, we found that a single blow came from this direction-" She pulled my shoulders to face her, and pantomimed stabbing my head, "-and ending here." She pointed to my jaw. "Cam helped us identify the beveling on one side, suggesting the angle of the blow."

"So, he wasn't shot?"

"No, the entry wound was too large to suggest a bullet, and the end point was small. All of that together gets you something like a cone..."

"Can you get me height of the killer?"

"Sure... In the meantime, you need to bring in this guy, he's our only lead." I handed him Scott's Profile.

CAITLIN'S POV*****

Brennan drove me home after that. She said I wasn't needed any more that night, and that I could use some rest. She dropped me off a couple houses down, so I could appear to have taken the bus home.

"Caity, there you are! You've been at the Lab all day, haven't you?" My mom chastised me.

"It practically a job, Mom. I've got set hours, and I work longer if I need to. It's late, I'm going to bed." I grabbed a pop tart before heading to my room. I closed, and locked my door. I didn't need anyone ''checking in'' on me. I stretched out on my bed, slowly enjoying my dinner selection, trying to forget everything. I can't sleep as long as something's on my mind. I crumpled up the wrapper and tossed it into my wastebasket. Two points, if anyone's keeping score. I kept attempting to clear my mind, when the last thing I wanted happened. My phone buzzed, signaling a caller, instead of a text. Peter's face appeared on screen. I stared at it, wanting to answer, but I couldn't. I studied the picture. He was happy, obviously before I slapped him... The screen went dark. I flopped back on my bed, tracing the lines on my ceiling. My phone vibrated again, and this time I answered.

"Peter?" I whispered.

"Hey, uh..."

"Uh what?" I popped open my bedroom window, and crawled off it and onto the roof, staring at the quarter moon.

"We've got problems; I'll be the first to admit it."

"..."

"Caity?" I almost yelled into the phone and asked forgiveness at that simple word.

"Yeah, we do. We all do."

"No, I mean, between us. It's kinda hard to hide the fact I like you, right?" I laughed silently to myself. "Why are you laughing?" He sounded confused, hurt even.

"At all the drama. It's like going to a regular school again. I mean, skipping two days a week to work the justice system, it's putting a lot of strain on us socially."

"I get that."

"You do? I mean, I thought I was the only one who noticed."

"It's not that hard to miss. All of us are finally coming to terms with our...with our...relationships with the other person."

"Sweets told us he chose us to be compatible..." We were both silent on the line a while. The wind blew hard, stirring up leaves, rattling bushes, and causing me to shiver slightly. Fall in Arizona is odd. Hot in the day, freezing at night.

"Caity?"

"Just thinking."

"About what?" Every inch of my mind screamed to not tell him.

"About us. Like Sweets intended, we are compatible, right?"

"..."

"Peter?"

"Yeah, yeah we are." I looked at my bare feet, pale white against the red roofing tiles. It was a long, comfortable pause. I played with the hem of my pajama pants. "Caitlin, will you go out with me?" I almost fell off the roof.

"What?" I was still in shock. The other line went dead, leaving me to listen to the dial tone. I didn't crawl back into my room, instead suffering in the cold. I cried, the tears warm on my face. I put every ounce of anger into my sobbing. Clouds began to cover the entire sky, blacking out the stars and moon. The only light source being the streetlight a few houses down the street. I cried for what seemed to be an hour or so, before I ran out of breath. I looked up at the clouds, lightning flickering on the horizon. I wiped my face with the back of my hand, shivering as the wind blew a bit harder this time.

"Why are you crying?" I shoved my head back to my knees. I didn't care who was down there.

"Go away."

"I don't think that would be a good idea." I wiped my face again, looking up. Peter stood there, hand shoved deep into his jacket pockets, staring up at me.

"Go away." I didn't want to talk to him right now.

"Please, Caity, come down."

"No." I pulled my gaze from him, looking back at my legs, toying with the black and white pattern on my pants. The lightning struck across the sky, followed quickly by a loud crash of thunder.

"Fine then, I'll sit here then." He leaned up against my mailbox, staring up at me. I kept my head down, listening to the loud bangs and rattling of thunder. A light rain began to fall, and I considered going back into my room before I remembered the boy sitting in my yard. I was soon soaked in rainwater, still shivering as the wind whipped around my red hair.

"You're going to catch a cold up there."

"C-cold-ds come from r-rhi-inov-vir-rus, n-not the c-cold."

"Hypothermia, then." I had no argument to that. I thought about our conversation earlier. It felt like days ago. He really likes me then, right? And Megan and Slade...

"It's almost midnight, Caity, do you ever sleep?" I laughed to myself.

"Fine, you win." I slid off the roof backwards on my stomach, kicking my feet into my window, and landing on my bed. I looked back out. Peter was still sitting under my mailbox. What should I do? I can't leave him there. I could go talk to him. It's raining. He's going to be drenched soon... I crept back out of my window, closing it behind me. Peter stood up, surveying me. I rolled my eyes and walked over to him. "No."

"No what, Caity?" He was obviously enjoying saying my nickname over and over without being slapped. Or punched. Or roundhouse kicked. Or sh- No, pay attention.

"No, I will not go out with you." He closed his eyes, inhaled, exhaled, opened them, and spoke in a low, slow voice that suggested he was upset.

"Why?" I bit my lip.

"I can honestly say that I have no idea why. This is just, just wrong. Everything about this is wrong. We were wrong. You were wrong." I trembled, fighting back tears or the urge to murder. I turned back to my house.

"Caity?" I whipped my head around at my name. Regardless of how wrong it was, it felt right when he said it.

"What?" I barely breathed, still shaking from the pounding rain on my shoulders and head. My glasses were streaked, and it was kind of hard to see.

"Tell me if this is wrong." He grabbed my arms, spinning me around to face him. He leaned down to kiss me, but I beat him to it. We stood there, kissing in the cliched rain. This, I thought, was right.

*****Slade's POV

My phone rang. The name flashed across the screen. Booth. I answered.

"Easton."

"We brought in Scott. We need you to meet us in interrogation room six, and bring crime scene photos, pictures before and after the bones were cleaned, facial reconstructing, and pictures of evidence."

"Interrogation room six, got it," I hung up and tuned to Meg. She was peering into a microscope, and writing stuff down. "Hey, Meg, I gotta go. Booth brought in the suspect."

"Fine... You'll need the case file and evidence," She pointed to the box under her desk without looking up from her slide.

"K, thanks, bye."

"See you later." I grabbed the file from the top of the box and walked out, crossing paths with Abby Scuito. She muttered something about assisting Megan with something difficult before brushing past me. I shrugged and continued down the hall, until a door with a brass number six appeared. I went into the adjoining observation room. Booth, Kaylee, and Sweets we handing around earbuds. I accepted one and wordlessly followed Booth into room number six.

*****KAYLEE'S POV

Sweets directed me to sitting next to him as we peered through the two way mirror. Booth and Slade sat across from the guy known as Aaron Scott. I took a moment to compare his actual features to the one in the profile. His dark blonde hair was several shades darker than documented. He favored his right arm, as he dislocated his shoulder three months ago and never got hospital attention from it. I repeated this into the mic. Booth nodded to no one.

"Aaron Scott. Picked up for possession of narcotics, charges dropped. Not enough evidence correct?" Scott nodded, not speaking.

"Do you recognize this guy?" Slade showed Wilkes photo.

"Yeah," When he spoke, it was louder than it needed to be, and rough. "He goes to my school."

"And, he's the one that alerted local PD of your narcotics?" Booth was trying to keep his cool.

"I don't got the drugs, man, but yeah, he told the cops."

"And you killed him because of that?"

"No! I wouldn't kill anybody. My dad killed my mom when he was drunk. I can't do that to 'em," Aaron Scott looked down.

"Exploit that. Ask about his family," Sweets told them.

"So, you live with your father?"

"It's more like he lives with me. He gave up drugs. That was huge. We celebrated. Until he took up drinkin'. 'Lana and me gotta support him."

"Alana, your sister?"

"Yeah. I work two jobs, man. TWO. I go to school once a week. Then, the cops pick me up and keep me for a day? My boss was maaaaad."

"He did it," Sweets said. "He's is exerting fear."

"That doesn't mean anything," I said, but one look from Booth to the mirror told us to can it.

"Okay. We'll keep in touch. If you remember anything, give us a call."

Megan's POV******

"Abby. What are we gonna do. I just give up, and I don't know why I don't want to do this." I pushed the tray away from me. "I thought I liked this stuff, but I-I-I just can't do it."

"Well, I don't know what to tell you." She started to talk with her hands. Not signing, but just moving them when she talked. I did that too, sometimes.

There were footsteps in the hall. I started signing to her, shushing.

She smiled the famous Abby smile, and started to sign back. Slade walked in, and I signed, 'just ignore him.'

She nodded. "Hello? Earth to Megan." Abby signed, 'so, you like this kid?' She jerked her chin to Slade.

'Yes, but that's off topic, and I don't want him to know about it, well the topic anyway.' I signed, sighing.

'Yes, it is. So, why did you want this job in the first place?' She questioned. We were signing pretty fast. Slade just stood by and watched us, not wanting to interrupt. 'I know how I came to want this job. I just wanted to know about human anatomy, and criminology suited my...' She paused. 'Curiosity.'

"My turn." Slade said and randomly moved his hands. 'All of the bee's like my tacos and haagen daz.' Is what he ended up with.

Abby and I burst out laughing. 'Although, you gotta admit, the humor here is worth it. I came here because I wanted to be like you, and I know I have to suck it up. Not every case is going to be easy to solve. Time to get back to work.'

"What?" Slade asked.

I turned to him finally after another bout of laughing. "All the bee's like your tacos and...haagen daz?"

"Uh, is that what I said? I meant this." He signed again, looking like he knew what he was doing.

I blushed. 'All the stars can't shine as bright as you.'

'Well, isn't that sweet?' Abby signed to me. 'You should go on a double date with me and McGee!' She was signing a million miles an hour.

'You know how awkward that would be?' I signed back to her, an amazed look on my face.

'So?' She frowned. 'Fun can be awkward.'

I sighed. 'Fine.'

Peter's POV******

So, she wasn't mad at me for breaking their promise? When was she going to tell Megan? But when was Megan going to tell Caitlin about her and Slade? Things just got more confusing. I sprinted down the stairs to Megan's lab. "Megan?" I called. As I ran in, I smacked into something hard. I backed up a few feet and looked into Slade's face. He was made out of rock hard muscle from lacrosse.

"In a rush much? Where are you going?" He was a little taller than me and I tried to walk around him as I spoke.

"To see Megan." I stated.

"Woah, there. What's up? She's mine you know." He moved to block me, he sounded serious.

"Slade, don't be stupid. I know she's yours...but, I just gotta talk to her. Please? C'mon, man." I shoved him out of the way.

He shoved me back. "Why? If you are gonna tell her something, you can tell me too!" He shouted.

My voice was low. "Maybe I don't want to tell you, and besides, I know you are making Megan break her pact with Caitlin, and I don't think Caitlin would like to hear the you two are back up again. She's gonna burn the trash that you are. " I shoved him into the door, resounding in a clash.

Slade reacted, socking me in the eye, the same one that Caitlin hit me. I turned, seeing Megan standing there, arms crossed. I could see steam coming out of her ears. My vision blurred from the tears coming out of my eye. I didn't react, waiting for him to hit me again.

Slade turned, following my gaze, and his eyes widened in surprise and shock. "M-m-Megan, I-I-I."

She full blown ignored him. "Peter, come in here." Her voice was soothing. I got up and walked into her lab. Slade came to follow her back inside, when she turned to face him, slamming the door in his face.

"Sorry, I got done explaining something to him and he blew up in my face. He's a little cranky." She went over to get a bag of ice out of her evidence freezer. "Now, you wanted to come talk to me about something? Tell me."

"Well, would it be okay if I calmed down a little?" I asked her, taking the ice bag and placing it on my left eye.

"Of course. Take as much time as you need." She went back to the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of ibuprofen. She handed me a glass of water and two tablets. "Take this though; it helps keep the swelling down."

"Thanks." I said after I swallowed.

"I know he's strong, and there is no reason for him to show it off. And I'm _not_ his for a while, in case you were wondering. In the meantime that you are calming down, we should use your anger to make a pretty horrible prank on him. Halloween is just three days away, you know."

"I agree." We talked for a little bit about what we could do for a prank. After a while, I completely settled down.

"Now, I am ready to talk about what I came down here for, but you are going to just listen, right?" I sighed.

"You are correct." She nodded.

"Okay, so it went well last night, with me and Caity. But, she, uh, I guess she didn't care about your pact..." She didn't react, like she knew it would happen." And, I don't know, she...umm...kinda, kissed me. It just felt right. She really didn't seem to care. Why is she so confusing? Please, help me understand."

"Are you all done telling me everything?" She asked.

"No. I just have all these mixed feelings for her. I know I like her. But, life just seems like I shouldn't like her. Sometimes, I just want to tell her how I really feel, but if I do that, she's going to react and she's pretty unpredictable." I shrugged. "No, I don't know whether I should keep it bottled up, then sometimes, I feel like I should just walk away and leave, forget the whole thing, and...ugh." I frowned. "Now, I'm done."

"Well, one thing you have to know is that Caity is predictable if you know her like I do, but you don't, so I will help you understand, to kind of see into her mind." Megan took a deep breath. "When we were kidnapped..." She gained her composure for a minute. Was she really going to talk about it? I gave both my ears, this was something I really needed to hear.

"When we were kidnapped," She repeated. "We were playing in the park by the elementary school. I ran away from her because we were playing tag. Oh, and forgive me if I start crying." She sidetracked. "We were playing tag and I remember a hand grabbing my forearm." She rubbed her left arm, probably remembering it. "I turned around, hoping to find Caitlin tagging me, but the hand was rough and had a really strong grip. I saw Caitlin fifty yards away, being grabbed by a strange man.

"I looked up to see the face of my abductor. He had dark skin, and his eyes were the muddiest, grossest brown I have ever seen. The next thing I knew, I was being thrown into the back of the van, my hands and feet duct taped together. I landed on something sharp, and I landed on it hard, which gave me this." She lifted up her sleeve to show me a scar, about an inch long on her shoulder. "I looked over to see Caity being thrown in too.

We called them animals._ '_Caity, lets have an understanding. These animals you know, the kid-'," She imitated different voices, hers and Caity's. " 'It's okay, Meg, I understand.' 'They don't deserve us giving in. We can't trust anyone now.' 'Right. No one. Ever.' She scooted closer to me, and we sat awhile, staring at the side of the van, not believing it was really happening to us. 'Hey Caity?' I finally asked. 'Yeah?' She replied. 'If we don't make it out of here...' 'Don't say it. We'll get outta here, I promise.' 'Me too. We can only trust each other.' Yes, I still remember our conversation, but we were only eight years old." A tear escaped her eye. I knew I couldn't do anything about it. I liked Caity, and didn't want to break that. This was strictly a friend conversation. "Eight year old minds don't really understand the meaning of trust.

"We were taken-" There was banging on the door. Megan went over to open it. Slade stood there.

"Megan, I-I didn't mean to-" Megan shut the door in his face again.

"Carry on." I urged.

Slade's POV*****

I was steaming. Peter couldn't just pop in and demand to talk to Megan. It wasn't fair. I couldn't walk up to him and demand to talk to Caitlin. I couldn't think straight. And now Megan let Peter into her lab and slammed the door in my face. I quickly whipped my phone out to text Shaun. _You want to go do something? I'm sick of this._ I hit the send button. A few minutes later, a reply came. _Wanna go bug Caity? I bet she's at the rink! _Perfect! _Meet you there_.

I grabbed my rental skates and ran into the rink. Looking for Caitlin, I found her amongst the crowd. Spotting Shaun sitting at one of the tables, trying to put his skates on, I ran to him. I had only gotten one skate on when I heard a scream and plenty of gasps along with two loud thuds, running unevenly over the rink's door, I saw Caitlin on the ground with a girl in front of her, she was holding her head with her eyes squinched up tightly. Almost on slow motion, a hockey player skidded up to her and ran into her stomach, falling over her. I let a string of cuss words out as I jumped onto the ice, forgetting I had only one skate on. I fell down and ripped the skate off of my foot and sprinted, while skidding, over to Caitlin who was curled in a ball. By the time I got over to her, a crowd had gathered around the spot where she was.

Pushing my way through, I knelt next to her. Shaun, as I just noticed by my side, was trying to pull her hands off her head to see if she was bleeding. "Caitlin, can you hear me?" I asked her, my only response was a groan and a small nod. This isn't good. "I'm going to pick you up ok?" Her non-responsiveness to my voice frightened me so I grabbed her and lifted her up. Expecting a fourteen year old to be heavier, I picked her up faster and she was tossed into the air an inch and landed back in my arms, a gasp escaping her and her eyes opening before closing again and curling herself in an even tighter ball. Walking over to the door, I laid her down on a bench and a tall guy gave me an ice pack. Removing one of her hands, I put the pack on the back of the other one, causing her to lift it so I could place the pack on. I placed my hand on hers.

"Don't die, Meg, I love you too much."

Five minutes later, she opened her eyes and sat up, leaning over. "I'm taking you home." I told her. She slowly shook her head but I ignored her and called Cam.

"Camille," I said once she answered. "I need you to pick us up and look at Caitlin."

"What? Why?"

"She fell hard and someone ran into her. She hit her head and keeps leaning over."

"Where are you?"

"Polar ice."

"I'll be right there, move her to a warm place, but not outside, it's too bright."

"Alright, see you in a minute." I hung up before she could say anything else and put my phone in my pocket. I walked to Caitlin's side and leaned down, putting an arm around her back, I felt her arm go around my neck to hold on. She turned into me and held her stomach as I pulled her up, still surprised at how light she was. Walking to the automatic doors, I brought her into the other rink where it was warmer and laid her down on the table. Shaun began untying her skates.

"Should we call Peter?" He asked.

"NO!"

"Why?"

"Because we had a teensy weensy little fight and I punched him. He'll think we did this on purpose!"

Whatever, you know he's going to find out sooner or later." I turned toward the door and walked outside, waiting for Cam.


	23. Chapter 22:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Megan's POV*****

We were sitting at the school lunch table; Kyrah, Caitlin, and I.

"So, what's new?" Kyrah asked, munching on Ramen.

"Besides Caitlin bashing her head and some person slamming her stomach? Slade must've been mad." I crunched on an apple.

"Why do you say that?" She looked up.

-"He left and went to go see Caitlin. Getting back on Peter and me. Good way for Caitlin to bring attention to herself. First, running away, then kissing Peter, then going to the Grand Canyon, _then_ getting a concussion..." I sighed. "Sometimes it makes me think..."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. She can be a little too dramatic sometimes." Kyrah went back to her Ramen. I looked up just in time to see Slade walk past. He saw me and scowled, while I looked back down at my apple. Kyrah nodded towards him and added. "So, how long are you going to be mad at him for?"

"Who knows." Caitlin fell asleep again. I remember when I was like her, falling asleep in class the day after I got my concussion. I woke her up. "Caitlin. You can't sleep." I nudged her, with little effect. "Caity!" I shoved her, she woke up in time to catch herself before she hit the ground.

"What was that for?" She stood up. "uhnnn. My head still hurts." She clutched it, doubling over.

"Yes, Caitlin, concussions do hurt after a day you get them. I know what it feels like." I ignored her, looking for Slade instead. He was with his friends, a good looking bunch of guys. He was talking to...Jake...I think. Him and Jason were twins, I could hardly tell them apart.

"Megan, I don't know why you just- Caity, wake up- accept the fact that you both like each other."

"We did... Its the fact that we...and he... and I..." I tossed my apple core into the trash. Caitlin groggily sat up.

"You guys what?"

"He said he loved me." Caitlin blinked wildly, then rubbed her forehead. Kyrah's hand stopped halfway to her mouth.

"When?" Wait, Slade said that to Caitlin? It had to be a joke, to make me mad.

"Yesterday, after I hit my head and he came over. He said Megan though..., don't die, I love you too much." She laid her head on the table.

"Caity, sit up before I shove you off again. He really said that? He couldn't have meant it. It must've been a joke to make me mad." I started mumbling under my breath. No, he didn't mean it to Caitlin...maybe it was...

* * *

Slade's POV*****

I still couldn't believe I had said that to Caitlin. I meant it to Megan. Even though she wasn't hurt, and she was fine. It reminded me so much of when that girl at the mall...which also looked like Megan...Oh, why did life have to be so hard? Was it really Megan at the mall? She had the same facial features, blazing blue eyes, a round, but square jaw. It had to be her! I was thinking this as I walked past her, probably with a scowl on my face. She turned back to Kyrah, who asked her a question. I turned back to look at her, snap, was she pretty. I just didn't deserve her. Almost no one did.

I could get Jake to talk to her. "Hey, Jake, I need a favor." I reached him, high-fiving and pounding everyone's hand.

"Ja, man, what's up?" He looked at me, expecting a lot.

"I need you to talk to my Megan." I jerked my head towards her.

"Sure, well, I need to know what's up in order to talk to her, you know the scoop." He shrugged.

"It's more like, I blew up in her face the other day, and now she isn't talking to me. I tried to say sorry, but we just don't say sorry. Long story. Can you see what's up with her? Please and thanks, man." I patted his back. "Not to mention the fact I beat up her guy friend."

"Ja. She's the really pretty one, right?" He smiled. Him and Jason had a trace of German accents.

"Yes. I know you're jealous." I turned to my other friends; Jason (Jake's twin), Hayden, and Daelin.

"Really," Hayden said, "I would be, but I got Emily." She walked up and snuck an arm around him.

"Well, let's hope that he can talk some sense into her." I shook my head, praying.

* * *

***Jake's POV **

I sat on the table next to Megan. "Hey, Meg."

"Ha, you forgot that _that _is Meg." She pointed a finger to the real Megan, who was writing in her agenda. She was pretty, and I swore under my breath for missing it. Her facial features were that of...Slade was right about even trying to compare her to anything that was as pretty as her. Caity was lying on the table. Meg turned to her. "Omigosh! Caity, if you fall asleep, you will wake up with table marks all over your face, and you won't be able to get them off!"

"What?" She shot up, and grimaced. "Ow, thanks."

"Yeah?" She looked up. Her eyes were a bright, tropical blue."Slade sent you, didn't he?" Her eyes flashed with pure hatred, darkening to a navy blue, I swear, then settled down. Kyrah nodded, asking the same question with her eyes.

"Kinda. You weren't hanging with him, so I thought-" I made up something on the spot, which was a truth, but not the real reason.

"You thought that just since _we_ were great friends, you could come over here and see what's up?" She snapped. She slammed her pencil down, then snatched it back up. "I know you came over here because he told you to. He went over to talk to you and then you come over here. Ca-win-ky-dink? _I _think _not._" She whispered fiercly, her voice low.

"Slade really cares about-" I tried again, but she cut me off.

"_You _have no _idea what_ Slade cares about." She retorted, shoving a finger at me. Her eyes flashed again, and I threw up my hands for defense.

"Will you just _listen_ to me?" I shouted.

"Okay, so I will listen to the person coming to console with me for peace...Not to mention that that person is the kid that I am over with!" She slammed her pencil on the table, looking back up at me. Her eyes darkened again, this time to a neutral blue, not dark, but not light.

"He really does care about you. He doesn't know what he did wrong! And he didn't mean to say that to you, Caitlin. It just reminded him of you in the mall. He told me about that..." I looked away at the look on her face. "He really does, Megan. When we hang out and scope out girls, he keeps reminding us about you, sayin' stuff like, "I'm taken, ladies" and "I still got Meg"..."

"Yeah, but now we are...over..."

"He said that just now." She snapped her head up.

"What?"

"Yeah, just now. "My Megan"."

"My Megan," she mumbled. "Thanks Jake...But, how do you know he isn't planning on doing something to get me back. Besides the punching of Peter...Poor kid." She whipped her head around to look at Caity, who was doing her own thing. "What is he doing for revenge? I know him better than you think I do." She rolled her eyes, whispereing.

"I don't know!" I yelled, frustrated. Was there anything I could do to get her to see that Slade meant it. "Is there anything I can do?" I settled down.

"Jake. If only you knew." She sighed.

"Ja! So let me know! I've got time, lunch started five minutes ago. Seriously, tell me." I crossed my arms, refusing to go until she told me.

"Well, if you are going to know, the three.."She looked at Caitlin, and sent her to the nurse. "Kyrah and I can tell you. We work as one too. Synchronized minds. Finish each other's sentences. You know?" She added, finally giving up.

"Ja. I get you." I uncrossed my arms, putting my elbows on the table, resting my head in my hands, ready to listen...

* * *

Kyrah's POV*****

My phone rang, causing me to jump. I hit answer.

"Hi-lo..." I corrected when I heard Cam on the other line.

"Ms. Di Croce? Are you there with Somers and Hamberlin?"

"Yeah, and Sl- Easton."

"A few of our techs have devised an experiment to find height of the assailant. And you six were chosen as the subjects."

"Cool, so, you need us there?"

"As soon as possib- Hodgins, is that a real weapon?" A muffled 'Maybe' rang out. "Sorry, um, yeah, ASAP."

"I'll warn you now, Cai- Somers might not be up to it..."

"Now, if you can."

"Be there in... 25?"

"What?"

"See you at 1:30."

I ended the call and turned to Meg. "that was...your mom, she needs us..." My eyes flickered to Jake. We just couldn't tell him.

"Oh, yeah, babysitting...Crap." She face-palmed. I thought about Slade too. "Hey Jake, could you tell Slade that we have to go? I'm sorry I couldn't tell you. I'll tell you tomorrow, if I'm here.

"Okay." I turned to the others, while dialing Phil.

* * *

The forensics platform was cleared away. A dummy, the exact height of the victim, stood in front of us. Hodgins and Zach paced around, until we came into the room. Megan lead the way, swiping her card for our entrance. I pulled Caitlin up behind us. Shaun and Peter came in shortly after us.

"O-Kay, Junior Squints. Here's the deal. you step up to this ruler, we record your height, then you stab the dummy, at an angle, to the head," Hodgins gestured to a long metal rod, sharpened on one end. it was hooked up via cable to a small computer thing. "Kay, uh, Ladies first, I guess... Di Croce." I shrugged, Standing next to the stick (five foot four), and picking up the rod. In one swift, strong movement, I pierced the dummy's skull. Megan and Kaylee followed. Since Shaun and Caitlin were the same height, she was allowed to sit this one out. Next came the guys. Shaun, Peter, and Slade made quick work of massacring the foam body. When we were done, Zach did some quick typing.

"Ehn?" He sounded worried of the outcome.

"What?" Hodgins looked over his shoulder.

"Peter Parker killed the victim."Peter looked at them.

"What?"

"What Zach meant to say is the assailant was your exact height and strength."

"Oh... does that help us?"

"Aaron Scott is exactly your height."

* * *

Peter's POV********

Caity seemed...drunk. Well, we knew that the killer was my size. I tried to think about the case, but kept wandering to Caity. "Caity, are you okay?" I asked as I walked over to her.

"No, my head is still reeling from you kissing me the other day," Everyone had left the room, and it was just us. "Can I slap you for that?"

"Now there's the Caity that I know and love." I smirked.

"That makes two of you." She smiled.

I was taken aback. "Whaa?" I came back.

"Slade loves me too. And, I think I like him better than you, even though he hasn't kissed me, but he will, just watch..." She got up and left, wobbling, then stabalizing. "I am going to talk to him." She called.

No, Slade didn't like her..._Easton_ didn't like her. I rubbed my cheek and eye where he slammed me. My cheek was practically _black_ from his fist. Lacrosse players didn't like to go easy. I had to tell Meg. This couldn't go on. I'll think of something. Realization hit me, knocking me over... Wait, Caity didn't like me anymore? Then I didn't like her back either. Enough was enough. I wasn't playing her game another second.

"I am done." I whispered to myself. "No matter what she says, or how sorry she seems, I am not going back to her." I vowed.

* * *

***Slade's POV***

Peter did it... haha, i like the sound of that. Serves him right for stealing my girl like that.

"Hey, Caitlin!" I called as I ran up to her. She whipped around at the sound of her name and her face scrunched up. She clutched her head and knelt down. "Crap." I mumbled as i ran over to her, Grabbing her arms, i hauled her up and backed her into a bench so she could sit down. I swear i saw Peter from the corner of my eye but when i turned to look, he wasn't there. I sat down next to Caitlin who was still clutching her head. "You want a water or something?" She nodded her head and i stood up, walking away. I got to thinking. If Peter isn't here right now, he's at whatever school he goes to, then, maybe I can get a little revenge on him and Meg, right? I popped a couple of quarters into the machine, thinking about when Megan ditched me for Peter. Serves them right, I thought again. The bottle of cheap filtered water dropped into the box, and I retrieved it, taking it to Caitlin. She sat back up, and accepted the bottle. She looked at it, then rejected it, looking a little green in the gills. She mumbled something I couldn't make out. "What was that?"

"Why?''

"Hm?"

"Why'd you say it?" I paled. I knew somehow that she had known what I said, but I didn't know for sure. Now that she knew, my whold plan was going down the toilet.

"To tell you the tru-" My phone buzzed. Peter. I put it down. "To tell you the t-" Another buzz. "I gotta check this, you mind?"

"Not the slightest." I turned to the display.

_What the heck are you doin' Slade? Me and caity were goin serious. I think. Now what? U and her? Stop it. _And, _Don't do this to me... I really like her, okay, please Slade, don't._ I smirked, not replying to his messages.

"What?"

"To tell you the truth, I-I-I'm going through this tough time at home, Dad's part of a drug study for the seals, see, and when he's gone..."

"It's okay, but, did you mean it?"

"Uh," I though about the texts, and how they would rip Peter to shreds. Then of Megan. What would she do? Be jealous? Want me to be happy? "Yes, I really like you, I don't know about love, that was spur of the moment, y'know, and..." She slipped her hand into mine.

"You're certainly more... caring than Peter... He's all action. It's hot, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it gets on my nerves..."

I certainly hoped that Megan would forgive me. Wait, I am with Caity now, no more thinking about Megan..."Frick." I don't think I could do it. I liked Megan too much to do this too her. I would tell her about it and see her reaction, then go for her...?

"Hey, I'll be right back. You stay here." I left to go downstairs. I reached her lab and stepped in, taking a deep breath.

"Meg." I head a sharp inhale of breath as I walked in. She was leaning over, a hand on her head. I rushed over. I knew now I couldn't be with Caitlin... "Are you okay?"

"No." She stood up.

"What's wrong?" I asked, bringing up my hands, but not doing anything with them.

"You." She turned to face me. Her hand came off her head. I decided to tell her anyway. But before I could get a word out, she spoke. "There is nothing I can do to make you see..." She ended abruptly, looking confused and...another emotion that looked like longing...

"Well, okay, but your not mine anymore, just saying. I am with Caity now. She's better than you anyway." I folded my arms, this was weird.

"Well, that's great for you." She didn't sound sarcastic or mean, just understanding.

"You don't care? We used to..." I didn't finish. We used to what? Like each other?

She shrugged. "You should do it for you,to be happy, not for my benefit at all. That is what love is all about." She turned back to her work. "Don't worry about it. I knew you had mixed feelings for me anyway. You probably didn't even need to tell me. Honest." She walked past me, and up into my eyes. She stopped, and stared me in the eye. Her eyes flashed a brilliant blue, then calmed to a clear, tropical water blue.

"So, what was with your head?' I asked, just as a friend.

"One of my freaking migraines. Had them ever since my concussion. It isn't bad, like, life threatening or anything." She said. We broke off our stare and she went and popped to migraine tablets in her mouth.

"I would think so." I put a side note that loud music can make a migraine possible. I turned to her radio with her iPod hooked up. It was playing a weird...German? Song...called disco pogo. I turned back to her, "I would think that loud music would have something to do with it..." I pointed to her radio.

"And you would be...gah. ow...wrong. Loud music has nothing to do with it. It doesn't make it worse either. Owww...It feels like I am getting a concussion all over again." She doubled over, clutching her head. "I...am...ti-..red..." She collapsed on the floor, just as Booth walked in.

"Megan, I..." He turned and saw her on the floor, while I ran over to her, thinking, why is it always me? Her pulse was fine. "What happened?" Booth rounded on me.

"I don't know, she was getting a migraine, and all the sudden, she was really tired, then collapsed." I stuttered.

He flipped out his phone, speed dialing somebody. "Cam, I need you at the lab ASAP." He hung up.

"Meg!" I tried to wake her up.

"Uhhnnnn." She tried to sit up, but Booth pushed her back down. "Nope, you stay right where you are."

"I never asked for any of this!" She said, looking sad. "I don't want any attention. Why does it always happen to me anyway. I just want to work and have a peaceful, happy life."

"You said it wasn't serious!" I snapped.

"I didn't say that. I said it wasn't life threatening. There is a difference. Well, I am feeling better, can I go home now?" She tried to get up again.

Booth didn't try to stop her. "No, you have to stay here, Cam is going to look at you."

"Stupid concussion." Her head hung low.

"When did you get it?" Booth asked as Cam walked in.

Confused, she looked at me. "Give me the money!"

"What?" I quibbled.

"Just kidding, I just wanted to see your reaction, which was funny, by the way..." She threw back her head and laughed. A second later, she collapsed again.

Cam looked at her like she was a nutcase. "Uh, do I have to ask?" She knelt down to her. "Her vitals seem fine, except..." She fumbled with her pulse in her neck. "No pulse. She's breathing, but no pulse." She said as she started compressions.

Booth and I sat there, dumbfounded. "Well, don't just sit there, call an ambulance, or something!" She spoke in between rises and falls of the compressions. A snapping sound happened, and I knew it was a rib.

"Da...ng." I covered as Booth looked at me, whipping out his phone. "What am I going to do?" I asked no one in particular.

A minute later, Booth put his phone away, and he spoke quickly to Cam. "Here, let me have a turn." Cam moved, and Booth took her place. He did a few and two more snaps rung out. "Uh, sorry, Hamberlin. Didn't mean to...Better than being dead, I guess." He mumbled.

"What was that snapping sound?" Kyrah's voice sounded as she, Caitlin, and Kaylee walked in. "Omigosh! Megan!"

* * *

**Kyrah**

Booth was kneeling over Meg, doing compressions on her chest. "Omigosh! Megan!" I spun on Slade, automatically assuming him. "You!" I stuck a finger towards him.

"No, it's not what you think." He stood and backed up, hands near his chest in defense.

"What did you do? Out in the hall. Now." My finger moved toward the door. He jumped and sprinted out the door. "You two, stay here." I added to Kay and Caity. I walked slowly out the door, ready to murder. "Now, what did you do, suffocate? Slam against the wall? Air bubbles in the blood? I knew I never should have trusted you!" I shouted, getting angrier and starting towards him. "And to think Megan ever liked you in the first place! Let alone kissed you!" He hit the back wall, so I pushed him down it, towards autopsy. "So now what? I might get her on one of my slabs! I don't think so! If I get her on there, you are going to be on there too, worse off than she is, ten-fold! Fifty-fold! I can keep that promise, and I can make it look like an accident!" I felt my hand make a tight fist, ready to spring.

"She did this to herself, with her loud music and head banging, and me...not going to say it." He slammed into the wall again, and I took this time to let out my anger. I swung my fist, and it collided with his eye socket. The skin on brow ridge split and blood flowed freely from it. I turned and walked back into the lab, where Megan still was down, this time, Cam starting compressions. I kept his blood on my hand, too mad to do anything with it.

A siren was heard through the open window, and a few seconds later, 4 firemen walked into the lab, towards Megan. They told Cam to stop. They stuck two I.V.s in her arm. They slid her onto the gurney. I watched them disappear down the hallway. Slade rushed past me, clutching a towel to his forehead. I smirked at him, only for a second, before he ran off, shouting to be allowed to ride in the Ambulance with her. I was soon left with Booth and Cam, staring at the sliding doors of Megan Hamberlin's lab.

**A/N: How are we doing? This story has gone far further than we imagined! Let us know anything: What we have too much of, what we're lacking, what you'd like to see, what you wouldn't like to see, favorite character/pairing/part. Whatever! Let us Know!**

**Om nom nom  
**


	24. Chapter 23: All hallow's eve

**Disclaimer: We own this. Not.**

_**This is a work of fiction, and everything that is not the property of **_**Bones **_**or **_**NCIS**_**, is the property of the authors (us). The actions, words, or events are fictional and do not represent the thoughts or opinions of the authors.**_

**Slade**

I was seated in the back of the ambulance, holding a towel on my eye. Tears sprung up for no reason, my eye hurt, Meg's dying, she didn't love me anymore, I was supposed to love Caitlin, and I was ruining my friendship between the guy who's life I helped save.

One of the EMTs in the back came up and asked me what was with the towel. I removed it and told him I fell on the table when I went to see what was wrong with Meg, quick lie, but I wouldn't rat out Kyrah. He looked at it, then demanded that I had to get at least a couple stitches. I swore under my breath. If Kyrah hadn't of flipped out...Well, I deserved it, for beating up on Meg, not to mention that Caity probably told Kyrah about me and her. The monitor beeped every few seconds, proof that Meg had a heartbeat. A heart that...No...Oh, why couldn't I stick with Meg? She was so kind and understanding. She always wanted the best for everyone, even if it meant her sacrificing all the little things. She had a pure heart. She cared about me, always making sure I was okay. I treated her like crap, especially before she...Well, we got in this situation. I looked at her. All the sudden she shot up, looked at me with pure, ice eyes. She fell back on the bad and started mumbling something. I leaned in to hear..."Oh, may I rise to see the fall of my enemies, knowing good from evil." She paused, and her eyelids fluttered. "May I learn from other's mistakes as well as my own. May I be able to fight with the spirits of my past, and the energy of my future." She stopped breathing for a second, but then kicked back up again. "Bless me with the courage to stand for what I believe in, and may I humbly accept my trials with a smile and small b...urden upon my back. Help me bless those I know and lift them out of their trails. Amen." She stopped, and I immediately thought of me. Me? My trials were something I needed to be lifted out of. I thought for a while...

I forgot my towel and threw it in the garbage can in the back. It looked like a garbage can, random things in it. Blood flowed down my face, and I didn't wipe it off. I had enough to worry about. I watched her as we sped to the hospital.

**Megan**

I didn't feel anything. Nothing. I was in a different realm. The realm of nothingness. It was colorless before me. I took a breath, and looked around. I felt eyes on the back of me, and I whipped around. My eyes opened and I was in the back of an ambulance. I glared at Slade. He was the one watching me in the dark. I sat back and went to pray to live. I knew I was dying, I could feel it in the atmosphere around me. I started to pray. "Oh, may I rise to see the fall of my enemies." I tried to open my eyes to look at Slade. "May I learn from other's mistakes as well as my own. May I be able to fight with the spirits from my past and the energy of my future." I stopped breathing, holding it, then continued. "Bless me with the courage and strength to stand for what I believe in. May I humbly accept my trials with a small burden upon my back. Help me bless those I know and lift them out of their trials. Amen." I tried to look at Slade to know that I was there for him and everything he was going through, but I fell back into the realm of darkness.

It was Halloween today, and I didn't mean this as a joke. I didn't want this. I didn't want anything for people to know me as the girl who was kidnapped and was taken to the hospital a few years later. I woke up in a bed. White walls, white sheets, white everything. Two I.V.s strung from my arm to bags. I looked on my little desk to see a ton of flowers and cards from people. Slade was asleep in one of the chairs, a long bandage tracing his forehead. I could hear Booth talking outside, his voice muffled.

I tried to sit up, but the pain was unbearable. I leaned back, fumbling for the remote that would incline my bed slowly. The hydraulics clicked loudly, waking Slade.

"Whaa? Whasagonahn?" He bolted upright, squinting in the florescent lighting.

"Slade?" I whispered, testing my voice.

"Meg?" He inched towards my bed. "Hey, how do you feel?"

"In pain, but a little happy that in the... the... how long have I been here?

"Hours."

"Like, three hours, or ten?"

"Eleven." He said, after a pause. "A little happy...?"

"That in the _eleven_ hours I've been here, some people remembered me." I nodded towards the flowers. He left my side, but returned moments later with ten vases, presents, or cards. The first one was a simple card from Booth, apologizing and expressing sympathy. Another from Cam, pretty much the same. A dozen black roses were from Abby. Caitlin procured some grey-ish red rose-like flowers. Kyrah gave me a can of mountain dew with a bow on it. Kaylee brought a bright purple vase with orange and yellow sunflowers. Peter and Shaun brought a stuffed purple rabbit thing. It looked...odd... My parents gave me a HUGE red bouquet, a teddy bear, a box of candy, and a card. The last one was from Slade. It was in a box covered in shiny red wrapping paper. I forced myself to open it quickly. On top of some tissue paper was a card. _Love is for you to be happy, not for my benefit. I hope I make the right decision. _Tearing past the paper, I found a glass teddy bear. It was multi-colored but gorgeous all the same. It too had an EastonCrafts logo stamped on the bottom and it was a little bigger than my fist. I pushed the gifts to the foot of my bed and gestured to Slade. He came over and sat on my bed. I wrapped my arms around him, in a 'brother' sort of way (Not a 'Boyfriend' way).

"You will."

Shaun's POV*****

October 31st

7:30 AM

Booth entered the lab, clicking his cell phone shut. Caitlin, Peter, Kaylee, Kyrah, and I were sitting on the steps of the platform, waiting for the verdict.

"According to the doctors, Megan accidentally inhaled some rare spore that has a really long name. It caused cardiac arrest. She was very allergic to the plant. They do not know when she'll be discharged, anywhere from the next two hours to the next two days. She has received your gifts, and is grateful for all of them. Now, visiting hours end at 8 pm. But, on a happier note, the annual Jeffersonian Halloween Social is tonight. Dr. Goodman had invited you all to attend and meet some of the other departments. It is at seven, please get with your supervisor before attending. That is all."

"Alright, I'm out." Caitlin said. "There is no way I'm dressing up like an idiot and..." She didn't finish.

I turned around and Caitlin was sitting up, holding her head. Booth grabbed her by her forearms and lifted her to her feet, dragging her to Cam's office.

"Does that happen often?" Peter said, walking towards the office.

"Yeah...uh, it's a...Ice Skater thing... Happens to Hockey players all the time," I lied, knowing full well that Peter wouldn't contest with someone that actually played the sport. Looking through the glass, we watched Booth hand her a water bottle, and Cam administer some sort of medication. "Hey, just a question, is there somethin'... you know, between you two?" Peter looked into space, inhaled deeply, and replied solemnly.

"No."

"Okay, just wondering because when she came back, and you kissed her that didn't seem like noth-"

"Shut up. Just shut up, Shaun, okay? We had something, and now we don't, got it?" I wanted to reply sarcastically, but feared losing a few teeth.

"Okay." We kept looking through the window. Caitlin looked up, feebly waving at us. I smiled, and waved back. She rolled her eyes and pointed to the blonde beside me. I poked him, then pointed to the redhead behind the glass. She waved again. I wanted to ask more questions, but something told me to leave them alone. I returned to the steps where Kaylee and Kyrah were chatting quietly. Kaylee pointed to me, and Kyrah flicked her eyes to mine, then back to Kay's as they kept talking. I cleared my throat.

"I'll be right back, Kay," Kyrah turned to me. "What?"

"Oh, uh, are you going to the social thing tonight?"

"Well, unless one of my friends cringes in pain, gets hit by a hockey player, or inhales deadly spores, yes."

"Would you like to go wi- hang on," I said, as my phone buzzed. An unfamiliar number popped up, followed by the subject of the message: Follow-Up. I opened the text, and read it out loud. "As a follow up to my previous examination to one of your remains, I would like to inform you that the victim was a heavy smoker, but just recently. Also, he was punched in the jaw, seconds before death. I am terribly sorry for excluding those facts in my initial reports, but it, ah, _slipped my mind, homies_ as you young people would say. Thank you for your patience, I hope you will understand, Doctor Rick Baker, Forensic Odontologist."

"How street of you, Mr. Harris," She laughed. I forwarded the text to Caitlin, then returned to the Social.

"So, uh, about the Social..." I toyed with my hair on the back of my head. She hung her arm off her neck. Little did she know I love it when she does that.

"Yeah?" I panicked. I shouldn't have. Slade and Peter'll call me a wuss. I can't ask her.

"What are you going as?"

"You'll laugh."

"Try me."

"A character from my book." I racked my brains. The first chapter from the book she wrote had Nat and...

"Felicia?"

"Felix, yes." I smirked. Perfect. I need to find Hodgins.

Caitlin's POV*****

HE strolled in, grinning in an almost calming way.

"Hey," HE said. I closed my eyes, willing the medication to reach my throbbing head.

"He-" I started to greet, but my voice cracked.

"How you feeling?" _Annoyed, in pain, and wished you weren't here._

"Better."

"That's good." The air was thick with awkwardness. HE played with the ends of HIS hair. Why did he do that while I was trying to forget HIM?

"Peter, I-"

"I know. What I don't know is what happened? You don't just...cringe like that." I bit my lip. He'll keep me off the Ice if I tell him. That's just like him. He was bookish, a techie, he played chess instead of something like, like basketball. He wouldn't understand. I closed my eyes, returning my non-gaze to my lap. I felt a hand on my shoulder. I knew it was him, but was still surprised to see his eyes in mine.

"Isktngacdnt."

"Come again?" He almost smiled.

"Ice skating accident. It was nothing, just a minor concussion."

"A CONCUSSION?" He whisper-roared. "A freaking concussion. I knew that if you and-" He fell short.

"What?"

"When?" He was calming down. Almost as if he was fighting something internal. It sounded like he was close to breaking.

"Friday," I said almost robotic, as if I was programmed to tell the truth. "The day before yesterday." He fidgeted, flapping his hand around, trying to find his words.

"A...ah...ih...uh..." He stammered.

"What?" I asked, startled at my sudden softness. Wasn't I angry at him? _Not anymore_, a voice in my head told me._ No, no I am mad. I can't be with him._ Before the voice could reply, however, Peter completed his thought.

"I was going to ask you out again. If-if you said yes, we wouldn't, y-you wouldn't-"

"Peter," I said. I left it at that. He left his hand on my shoulder, a comfortable distance left between us. He was idly twisting a piece of my hair between his fingers. He tucked it behind my ear. I almost rolled my eyes at the moment.

"Are you going to the social?"

"No, it'll be humiliating. I don't like dressing up."

"Well, then, lets be different. Do you think you'd... want... to... hang...out... today." He winced, trailing off. I bit my lip, contemplating.

"I'd like that." I pulled out my phone. 7:45 am. I had work to do. Mondays and Fridays were spent at the lab, then two hours on two more days of the week. Weekends only if we're needed. "Listen, this is a really bad time for me to ditch you," we laughed, "but I have a murder weapon to ID."

"I could help with that... I got this new 3-D rendering software that I can make a model of the weapon."

"I'd like that."

Megan's POV

It hurt to breathe, it hurt to move. It hurt to do anything. Slade was slumped on the chair, asleep. I coughed, which hurt like the dickens. He shot up, looking at me. I shook my head, there was nothing wrong.

He shrugged, but stayed awake. I ate another chocolate out of the box. A sneeze came up, and I tried to avoid it. It came anyway, and I almost passed out of pain. "Why are you here if you don't like me anymore? You told me so, and just because this happened, you shouldn't change your feelings, or make me the charity case." I shrugged, even though my chest flamed. I was too young to be in this position, feeling like I'm dying, at fourteen.

"I...I just..."He didn't finish, probably thinking of a good reason. I waited for him. He could do this on his own.

"You just what?" I encouraged. Somewhere I was hoping he had changed, but my mentality was set. He shouldn't change for this.

"I...I...Meg, I..." He groaned.

"What, Slade?" I was getting a little impatient. I waited a few more seconds before finally, "Just tell me already!" I roared.

"It's Halloween, and I didn't mean to. Caity took it literally..." He stopped.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. I fiddled with my I.V.

"I accidentally told Caity I loved her, but I didn't mean it, but it was...I was mad at both you and Peter because he randomly came to you, and I thought that he liked you, and you liked him back, and it's just that I wanted to screw around to get back at you. I...I." His head hung low. "Then this happened and I-I-just felt so bad."

"Well, there might be a way that you can help." I smiled at him, and he looked at me.

"What?" He asked. He was eager to help.

My face fell. "The social tonight." I almost asked. I wanted to dance with him, but my ribs restrained me, like they restrained him from taking my heart. I gazed down at my sheet. The wrinkles were smoothed as I passed my hand over them.

His hand came down and picked mine up. "What?" He questioned. "What am I going to do?" He sat back down on my bed, and I scooted over to give him room.

"Well, I was hoping it would be possible to dance, but with my ribs, I don't even think it would be probable. So, I guess, never mind." I sighed, but flinched from pain. My monitor beeped continuously, then stopped for a few seconds, then resumed. I blinked and looked up into his eyes. They flared with sadness, and I put my hand on his cheek, in a reassuring way.

"Don't worry, we'll find a way. I promise." He kissed the top of my head.

I sighed again, this time fighting the pain. "Well, I hope so. I hope so."

Slade's POV

The Doctor walked in, wearing white scrubs with purple paw prints. Meg started some small talk with her over the pattern, I ignored most of it. The doc said that she wanted to run a few vitals, and tape up Meg's ribs. She said that Meg should be out by 7:45 that evening. Meg told me to leave, but come back for her later.

"Now why would I do that?" I said sarcastically. She laughed and motioned to the door. I kissed her forehead, and left, heading for the bus station.

The ride was long, uneventful, and quiet. That gave me time to think. What _was _I doing in there? I really like her, don't I? I smirked, and pulled out my Smartphone. I set an alarm for 7:30 PM, so I would be able to surprise Meg. Sweets was right. I pulled the cord, signaling my stop. I walked past the lab, to the doors of the actual FBI building. I sought out Booth's office. Why? Because he could probably give me some good advice.

"I knew you'd come sooner or later, listen, I'm really sorry about what I did to Hamberlin, It's just, heat of the moment, and the force and-"

"It's okay, Booth, I just need someone to talk to."

"Sweet's is in room-" He pointed left.

"Not him. You. What am I going to do? She hates my guts, and that makes me love her just that much more."

"Uh..."

"C'mon, Booth, I need this." He leaned across his desk, and patted me on the shoulder.

"Do what's right, kid." He leaned back, his hand gravitating towards the mouse on his computer.

"No, not like that, I mean, I'm crazy about her. She's in my head, even when I don't want her to be. I could stare into those eyes forever, bright blue, blazing... All of that is great, but my mom has kind of instilled this, this ideal into me that love is nothing until I'm older, I'm just fourteen."

"Do what's right, kid."

"Gah, you are not listening to me! I _love_ Megan, and nothing can change that," I started yelling, thankful the door was closed. "Yeah, I freaking LOVE her. And...And... I'll do something for her, yeah, thanks Booth!" I jogged out of the room, faintly hearing "You got that...from that?" and not caring. Dang, Sweets is good. I should send him a gift basket or something for practically hooking us up. I turned to go to his room.

Peter's POV

It wasn't until 6:30 that we got something.

"Peter, you are a genius! How'd you find that out?" Caity pointed to the 3-D rendering of a 3/4 inch metal rod, approximately 13 inches long, and the last four inches slowly tapering to a sharp point.

"Well, I got metal type, wrought Iron, from particulates, thank you Dr. Hodgins. I got size and shape from your casts that you gave me. Notice this indentation in the bone," I picked up the skull plate, the cast of the entry wound. Towards one side, the perfect circle pointed, like a tear drop shape. "That would definitely cause a slice to the hand. Scar tissue would still be there, after all these months..."

"So, we're looking for a hiltless wrought iron rod with a tear drop tip, sharpened, and about a foot long?"

"Yeah, and guess where the most popular place for dumping murder weapons is."

"Dumpsters?"

"Yeah, but not what I'm looking for."

"Storm drains?"

"Caity, now you're just messing with me."

"Don't call me Caity." Point taken.

"Somers, just guess."

"Scrap yards."

"Finally, and guess what scrap yard is just across the street from the body dump?"

"H & D Scraps!"

A few phone calls, and a ride later, we were advancing on the yard. A Doberman chained to the ground growled menacingly. I pushed open the gate, and hung a left, towards the 'Sticks' sign. Luckily, the owner had categorized by size. We went down the line. I tuned back, eying Phil's truck. I nodded to Caitlin, who poked through the rods.

"Peter? I think I have something." She picked up a metal pole with her gloved hand. It _exactly_ matched the description I gave. Except it was probably spit shined or something. I snapped a few pictures, and she swabbed it for blood evidence. The liquid in the vial turned pink.

"Pink... Blood... Human..." I stammered. "We should, uh, bag it." I didn't expect to find it. Following protocol, and sealing and labeling the bag, we turned to leave.

"Not so fast, hoodlums." We whipped around; a security guard pointed his taser at us. I wanted to snort, or laugh, but feared being electrocuted. "Hands in the air." We complied, and he cuffed my right hand to her left.

"Now what?" I surveyed the guard. He was young, early thirties, way overweight, and didn't have a badge.

"I call for backup!" He scurried into the office of the scrap yard.

"Go," I hissed to Caity. "The FBI will vouch for us." She picked up the bag, and drug me to the van. I slammed the door shut, taking Caity's hand with mine. As we rolled away, I saw the 'cop' exit the office. He looked around, bewildered. I hung my head in my hands, breathing deeply. Caity's hand hung limply next to mine. "Sorry," I mumbled, dropping my hand. I took my watch off my left wrist, switching it to the other side for comfort. Two minutes to seven. We'd be at the lab by seven-fifteen if we were lucky.

Kyrah's POV

I absolutely adore Halloween. I love it. There was something about pretending to be someone you're not and running around in the dark that has always appealed to me. It was twenty minutes until the Social started. I was in Angela's office, describing the character straight out of my book.

"Felix has black, waist-length hair. It's straight. No, no, crimp that strand," I gestured to the person on the screen. Angela was designing my costume. "She wears this red top, yeah, with the black cobweb on it..." I imagined the shirt, long sleeves, but all of the shoulders are exposed. "Do I have to wear the skirt?" I glanced down to my current black-and-orange fire print Hawaiian shirt and ripped jeans.

"Only if you want to look like Felix."

"Fine, black skirt, floor length, kind of flow-ish... Uhhh, a tattoo on her shoulder, yeah, a spider." She added the details as directed.

"Any makeup?"

"No, just a cut, on her wrists, not like that!" I said at her look. "Like, rope burns." She tapped the touch screen tablet she was carrying around.

"And done! Let's make this work. I have just the thing for that shirt..."

**Meg's POV**

I still had no idea what I was going to wear for the social; I'd probably only be there for an hour or so before it ended. I thought about going as a character from my book, like Kyrah, but nobody would know who I was. I could go as...a paramedic, ironically...

No.

I really couldn't think. I probably wasn't going to do a joint thing with Slade. I could dress up like a hobo.

No.

Angel?

No.

Devil?

No.

Crayon?

No.

The idea snapped up in my head. It was perfect. I was going to surprise everybody.

Everything was fine with me, except my ribs, which still popped every once in a while. I laid back down, my back to the door. I looked at all the cards. I picked them up and read them all again. Booth really seemed like he was sorry. _I really didn't mean to, Megan, it was heat of the moment, and I put to much force and I didn't know you had soft bones, I guess._ I looked up, into the fluorescent lights. I did have soft bones. I knew that. I wonder why I always kept quiet about it. I was so childish sometimes, because I read some books that had these bird-kids who had wings and stuff. They had soft, lightweight bones so that they could fly easier. I was still waiting for my wings to sprout.

I never told anyone about it because I knew I would be laughed at. I kept it a total secret. I saw another from Cam and read it. She explained that she broke the other half of my ribs. She broke one, and Booth broke the other two, she tried to make it look like it was all Booth's fault. I smiled. They both would be sincere to be sorry about breaking something. I was okay with it. At least I was okay, that was the important thing. Better broken than dead. I called Angela to fix me up my costume.

"Angela here." She answered.

"Hey, Ang. Could you help me with my costume?" I could hear Kyrah ask who it was. "Well, when you are free. It's a surprise. So I can't let Kyrah know." I added.

"Ooohhhh." She cooed. "I will. I am excited to see it!" I heard Kyrah tell her to put a certain ring on her right index finger. I knew it was Felix.

"Not only see it, but help me create it." I smiled. I loved creating things. It took more time to create than to destroy.

"I am excited. I am almost done with Kyrah's so, I will come to you with my laptop, and we can create it, mkay? I will be over as soon as possible."

I fiddled with my sheet. "Okay, can't wait." I hung up and planned it in my head.

I looked back over at my cards. There were my roses from Abby. Pure black. Dying. I loved them. I slipped my fingers over the slightly wilted petals, feeling the cheeriness of Abby through its Goth outline. Caity's flowers stood, still alive, next to the roses. I wondered how they were red AND grey. Kaylee's sunflowers were beginning to wilt, but were still bright as ever. I had given Slade Kyrah's Mountain Dew, but kept the empty can and bow. Peter and Shaun's Long-eared Mouse thing sat gathering dust, and I regretted not messing with it. My family's gifts sat in a bag on the floor, except the bear and flowers. I had the bear in my hospital bed next to me, and the flowers on the shelf. Then there was Slade's gift. I wanted to forgive him. To tell him that I _do _still li- love him. To tell him to forgive me. But no, I need him to understand that emergencies don't change anything. That there is no 'Forgive-and-Forget'. I held onto the glass bear tighter, but still careful not to break it. I laid it back in its box and stared at the ceiling. I've taken to doing that, for hours on end, clearing my mind. Well, at least hospital stays are good for one thing. Meditation. I almost give that psychologist points; meditation was pretty nice.

The door creaked open.

"Hey," Angela tentatively approached my bed. Why did everyone do that in a hospital?

"Hi, so, did you bring your laptop?"

"When don't I?" I laughed and began to describe probably the coolest thing I will ever wear.


	25. Chapter 24: This will be our year

**VERY IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE:**

**This portion of criminology high is coming to a close. If you have any additional comments/concerns/questions/things you would like to see, this is your (2****nd**** to) last chance to let us know! We are happy to listen to your requests. ((BTW, this is fiction, not based off anything/one, and we don't own NCIS or bones.))**

**Thanks, **_**the CH team**_

Peter's POV

It was 7:05. The Social had already started. We ran in, Caity dragging me behind. We stopped when we met the converted lecture room. Loud Halloween-like electronic music surrounded us. I squinted into the flashing lights. I spotted Booth bobbing his glasses-glad head to the music. I pulled on the cuffs, getting Caity's attention. I pointed in Booth's general direction, and she took off. Booth, apparently, was dressed as a geek of some sort. He was talking to Wonder Woman, who I guessed to be Dr. Brennan.

"Booth," Caity hissed, raising the cuffs and shaking them.

"Ahh, you guys went as a chain gang! Nice, you could'a done a bit better though," He said, taking in our FBI uniforms of Navy scrubs, and in my case, A t-shirt.

"No, Booth, some idiot Rent-a-Cop cuffed us! We have the Murder weapon! Get us out of this!" Booth shook his head.

"No can do, see, I have to be here because I have a speech to make. Go find someone else! Or just sit here and enjoy the music." He snapped his fingers to the fast jazz tune.

"Booth! Listen to m-" She was cut off by a shout from across the room.

"Hey, Seeley! Wassup?" Caitlin rolled her eyes and began to pace. I jerked my wrist down straight to stop her.

"You hear him, let's go find someone..."

"No one is here, Peter! No one can help us!"

"Then let's make the best of it." The music quickened in pace, but I didn't care.

Slade's POV

My phone went off, just as I stopped at the Hospital. I got off the light rail, and ran into Meg's room. She was standing, thank God, staring at a Laptop. I walked up behind her, wrapping my hands around her eyes. She jumped, groaning slightly in pain.

"Slade?"

"Yeah. Are you allowed to leave?"

"Yeah, any minute now the doctor will let me go." I pulled my hands from her face. She turned around to face me, quickly snapping the computer shut.

"What was on there?"

"Nothing of immediate importance." There was a knock on the open door.

"Am I interrupting?" I jumped back.

"N-n-no." I stammered.

"Well, then," The same doctor from earlier winked, "Miss Hamberlin, your papers have cleared and are free to be released. We recommend coming in in a few days to a week for a follow up..." She rambled on, I tuned out. I though about the social. It might have been a costumed one, but I had nothing to go as, unless that was a Pink Floyd groupie, I thought, staring at my 'Dark side of the moon' shirt. "Thank you, again, Miss Hamberlin." The nurse left.

"Ready, Meg?"

"I think so," She picked up three bulky bags.

"No no no no no. That is not how this works," I tried to grab all of the bags from her. She shrieked, and handed me two.

"Not this one." I cocked an eyebrow. She was up to something, I could tell by the look in her eye. She shook her head, winced in momentary pain, and pulled my arm to the door.

"Do you want me to call Phil?"

"Nahh, the train is faster."

[***]

A light rail ride later, we were standing in the FBI's lobby. The air was awkward. We just stood there.

"D'ya... Do you think we should ... go in?" I pointed to the Lecture Hall's door. She shook her head.

"I uh _gotta go_..."

"Wha- Oh! Then go!" She ran into the women's restroom. I rolled my eyes and wanted to tell her to stop moving so fast. It was obvious how much pain she was in. I waited outside the door, not wanting to leave for fear of her moving too quickly, but she took a while. I wanted her to be in the least pain possible. I resolved to telling her when she left the bathroom, but something stopped me. She stood right outside the Bathroom door, her hands behind her back, staring innocently at me. I'm sure my mouth had dropped. She was... wow...

Shaun's POV

I ran around the Social, attempting to locate Kyrah. I knew she was dressed as Felix. Wait until she saw my costume. There. Over by the Entomology Department's Leader. I walked up swiftly behind her, if I do say so myself. Not the right thing to do. Nanoseconds later, her wrist was at my throat, her eyes burning anger. She anger flooded away and was easily replaced with annoyance.

"Shaun why'd you... why'd you..." She gave me a 'once over'. I smirked. I was wearing a cheap, torn button up dress shirt, ripped jean shorts, fake bloodied tennis shoes, and fake blood in my hair. "You're...no. You. Didn't!" She smiled, flinging her arms around me, again readjusting her limbs. It was more of an 'OHEMGEE THANK YOU!' hug instead of an 'OHEMGEE I LOVE YOU!' one. I smoothed her dyed black hair. She stood back. I never actually pictured her dressed as Felix. I had read her book, yeah, and knew what Felicia looked like, but on her...I gulped. Why didn't Slade and Peter believe me when I said she was attractive?

"D'ya want to... D'ya want to da..." I mumbled. She inhaled deeply, still looking at me dressed as Nat.

"Yeah!" She grabbed my hand leading me to the dance floor. I recognized the song playing, and bolted for the restroom.

**Slade**

She was probably prettier than...I couldn't think of anybody that could even compare to her. She had on teardrop crystallized earrings that hung to her jaw. Her hair was pulled back, so her jaw line was visible. Her eyes were brighter than the brightest tropical ocean on a clear summer day and the little freckles that ran across her face stood out more than if she were to wear anything else. Her costume was almost indescribable. She was barefoot, with an icy-blue polish on her toenails. It was a white sleeveless dress that flowed down around her ankles. . It fit her figure perfectly. I was speechless. It didn't look like a wedding dress; she looked more like a fairy out of a movie. A movie with...I couldn't even describe anything. A silver necklace hung around her neck and had little diamonds make the shape of a heart.

"You look..." I trailed off for lack of a perfect word.

"Speechless." She finished for me. I guess you could say that speechless was the right word for it. "And don't think that you have gone away with your promise you made about tonight. Just because of everything," She waved a hand dismissively, "doesn't mean I've forgotten." Behind her back were small wings attached. I didn't know how, but they weren't the dollar store stuff, they were the legit, looked like real feathers kind.

I wanted to tell her that I hadn't of thought of anything yet, but at her look, my mouth said, "I know."

"So, should we go?" She motioned to the lecture hall, where the social was supposed to be. I swallowed.

"Yeah. Only if you promise to be my dance partner." I smiled, awkwardly, but hopefully it didn't seem like it.

"Only if you promise to dress up for it. Go talk to Angela real quick. She can hook you up." She smirked at me, like I knew better.

I mumbled an 'I'm already hooked up with you.' I hoped so. I looked into her eyes to see if she heard. She smiled bigger.

"You wish. I am already gonna go, but I promise to save the slow dances for you if you truly want." Which proves she heard me. I swore under my breath.

"Okay, I will go talk to Angela then. See you in like...later." She walked over to the door, and her dress almost danced with the rhythm of her feet against the floor. She pulled the door open, and I couldn't even imagine anybody's face as she swept in.

Peter's POV

"Caity, please."

"Don't. Call. Me. Caity."

"Please? Just one dance." She grumbled a 'Fine' and put her hands on my shoulders, keeping as much distance as she could between us. Luckily for me, the handcuffs were the standard really short length, forcing me to put one arm on her shoulder, and keep us close together. We swayed, and I only tripped on her feet once. She mumbled something. I shouldn't have looked up to see her reaction because I tripped over her feet again. I fell forward, and our lips brushed again. I heard a click and tried to pull away, but my mouth felt stuck to hers. We both fought to get loose, but our braces were hooked together. I swore in my head.

Fifteen seconds later, Booth cleared his throat, probably signaling for us to stop. Caity started dragging my hand everywhere, probably signing to Meg or Kyrah. I heard laughing and it finally slammed into me that this was probably the most awkward moment in my life. I loved her, so I didn't want to stop. Why didn't Shaun and Kyrah have any awkward-I shook off that idea because that was all their 'relationship' was: awkward. Why didn't Meg and Slade have any awkward moments? Their relationship was always perfect. I sharp pain caused me to come back to the situation. I sighed, trying to pull away. The braces finally unhooked, and we both fell backwards, pulling and yanking at the handcuffs, which now were cutting into my wrist. I sighed from the pain.

Megan's POV

My dress floated everywhere I went. Slade was talking to Angela about a costume, and they left to her office to get it. I watched him slowly, and he turned to look at me. I quickly averted my eyes, causing pain. I sighed again from the pain and went over to Kyrah, who was sitting in a chair, thinking from the look on her face. "Kyrah." I stated, reaching her.

"Oh, hey. You look good. Very good." Her dyed black hair was burned straight from a flat iron. It looked real, but I knew it was fake from the little blonde roots sticking up that she missed. I smiled, but turned back to her.

"Thanks. You look your part too. Very nice with the outfit." I motioned.

"You just gestured to all of me." She scoffed, quoting one of her favorite movies.

"Exactly." I sat down next to her, but winced from plopping into the chair.

"Where's Slade?"

"Angela's, but I could ask you the same thing." She blinked. "Where is Shaun?" I clarified.

"Ah, well, uh, I don't really know. He, uh, asked me to dance, I think, and I said yeah, and then he ran off somewhere. I don't know why."

"Oh, okay then," I stared out across the hall. There were orange and ultraviolet lights flashing everywhere, a thin layer of fog covered the ground, almost everyone was dancing to one of the slower songs playing. I looked over to Kyrah, who was silently mumbling the lyrics.

"_This will be our year, took a long time to come._"

"Yeah, it will."

"Come again?"

"This is our year. This whole year has been so, so violently thrust upon us, and we just went with it. We've seen worst things than most fourteen year olds, I guess."

"You're right. It feels like ages since we were sitting in math, remember?" I thought back to the agent that collected us. We thought we were in some kind of trouble back then. How wrong were we?

"Yeah." I glanced over to Caitlin and Peter. She was arguing, furiously shaking the handcuffs between them. She probably didn't notice Peter was holding her hand, either to make peace, or to minimize the lacerations to his wrists.

"Well, I'm going to go find Shaun. Where do you think he is?" She pulled off the copper and black ring and twiddled it between her fingers. She really didn't like wearing rings, as she's told me on many an occasion.

"Check the bathrooms," I said without thinking. Kyrah would probably just barge into them. "Knock first, or send a guy in there."

"Okay!" She grinned.

"I mean it, Kyrah; they have signs on the doors for a reason."

"I know, I'll find Booth or Hodgins or something."

Caitlin's POV

"Peter, you stupid, idiotic, imbecile! You knew we needed a warrant! Honestly, fidntlkusmuch..."

"What was that?"

"You stupid idiotic, imbecile?"

"After that." What was he getting at?

"You knew we needed a warrant?"

"AFTER that?"

"Nevermind!"

"Caity-lin," he said after some serious consideration, "Caitlin, listen, calm down. The Social is only for a little while longer. After that, Booth will get us unlocked. Please, don't make this worse than it has to be." He slowly raised the handcuffs. Apparently we were holding hands. He used his free hand to inch the cuffs down his wrist. Angry red cuts lined his arm. He switched, dragging my end down too. I had nearly identical red lines. In my anger, I hadn't noticed the pain. Now I had calmed down, I did.

"Oh," was all I could say. I caused that. He lowered our hands.

"We should get these cleaned up." He slowly pulled me toward the restrooms, and immediately into the men's room. That didn't register, only him running the water over our wrists. I blinked, looking around. Shaun was at the other sink, splashing his face. He looked up into the mirror, meeting my eyes.

"Peter? Why'd you bring her in here?" His eyes traveled to the sink. "Oh, man, you are in deep doo-doo. How'd you get there?"

"Not the time, Shaun." He said. The door banged open, and Kyrah strolled in, her eyes flicking between the three of us. An elderly man from accounting crimes shuffled out of one of the urinals, one eyebrow raised.

"There you are Shaun. Why won't you dance with me?" He raised an eyebrow. Peter stopped the water and took a few paper towels from the dispenser. He wrapped our hands in them, still holding mine. I was still slightly catatonic. I caused that. I caused him pain. I caused myself pain. And I didn't even notice.

Slade's POV

Angela rifled through her personal closet in her office. I told her flat out I was NOT under any circumstances wearing drag. She laughed and kept digging. When she surfaced, she was carrying only two things.

"I've had these for a while..." She handed me a black cloak and white mask.

"What the heck is this?"

"Phantom."

"Like, like a ghost?"

"No," She said. She tied the cape-like thing around my neck, and positioned the mask on my face. It only covered one side of it. "Like, Phantom of the Opera."

"Opera?" I said, skeptically.

"Y'know, the musical? Anyway, Megan will love it, and it doesn't involve a lot of work on my part."

Meg's POV

I was supposed to be a smoke-hawk. It was a character from a book I was writing. _Raine_ hawks were meant to be graceful but deadly, like a cheetah or whatever. Always went for the kill, while simultaneously looking gorgeous. There were five different colors. Red; she was trained in secrecy. She could kill you with anything, even a cotton ball. Yellow specialized in energy channeling; you never wanted to meet her in a dark alley. Purple was poison. She could kill you with any liquid she had on her. Blue hawks were the 'explosive technicians'; they had control over everything and anything, including the penny in your pocket.

The white one, or me, was a different story. She doesn't kill, she assassinates. Looking innocent, though she could strike at any second, with anything. Poison, energy channeling, secrecy, technicians. They knew everything, so if you were on her hit-list, you were dead, no matter what. She was the mother of all hawks. The smoke-hawk.

I looked around, Caity and Peter had come back and were sitting, looking in pain, still handcuffed. I stood up and walked over to them. They probably didn't know about the _point_ like I did. There is a certain spot on the handcuff that if you press really hard, they both open and they come off. It takes someone who isn't cuffed to press it, though. "Are you going to get those off soon?" I asked plainly.

"Well, unless you have the key, no." Peter snapped. I looked at his face, and there was another bruise forming on the cheek.

"Give it here." I stuck their hand out and I worked my magic. After a second, they came off.

"Thanks, Meg." Peter started rubbing his wrists.

I sighed again. "Ja. Caity, come here. Now." I turned and walked to the hallway door. When I reached it, I turned to make sure she was following. I walked out, still looking at her.

I slammed into something. Someone. Hard. And I couldn't breathe, the pain hurt so bad. Strong arms caught me, and I collapsed. Slade. I blacked out for a few seconds, then I came to.

"Meg, are you okay?" My vision was blurred, and my eyes watered. Shallow breathing took over, and I didn't even try to say anything. A minute later and I was sitting up with Caity, Slade, Peter, and Booth circled around me.

Slade turned around and started pacing, mumbling to himself. Something like, "Hooda been washing." I frowned and took in his costume. The Phantom. Of the freaking Opera. I loved it. It looked real, even though he had his four stitches by his eye. Four stitches...?

He looked up at me and smiled, trying to muster a facade. I shook my head, disappointed. "It's not your fault." I stood up.

"Yes. Yes it is." He frowned.

"We'll talk about that later. Caity." I took her arm and dragged her to the soon as the door closed, I turned to her. "Why?"

"Why what?" She asked.

I let go of a breath. "What? Why do you do that to Peter?" I fumed. My chest did also, but I kept going. "He didn't mean to do that, you know. Haven't you noticed that the impression you put on him let's him know that you don't like him?"

"I never-" Caity stared.

Peter's POV

I was listening outside the door. Meg was yelling, and I knew she was in pain. "I know that you like him, and he likes you, can't you see that?" Meg shouted the question.

"Yeah, what about you and Slade?" Caitlin retorted.

"I know I broke the pact, but I also know you did too! Don't try to _lie_ to me, I know what happened. Bet it was perfect, in the rain."

_Slade. The bathroom. Girls._

"It felt right, okay?"

"I know it did, but you didn't even _bother_ to tell me about it! I was going to tell you about me and Slade, but everything happened! I didn't ask for my life, and neither did you!"

_Okay. Be there in a sec._

"I though I trusted you!" Caity screamed.

"No, you see, the problem here is you! You ran away twice, and the first time, I saved your ass!" Slade walked up with wide eyes. I shook my head. "You're immature!"

"I needed time to think!"

"You always need time to think!"

"You would never understand! What feelings have you had? You always keep them bottled up inside! Does Slade really know how you feel?" I looked at him, and he had a quizzical look on his face.

"Don't you _dare_ accuse _me_ of not having feelings. And I do _not_ keep them bottled up inside. I try to talk to you, but you are too busy running away! Or getting freaking concussions!"

Slade's POV

I winced. Meg was probably killing herself; it hurt her to talk, but she was screaming and shouting.

"I could care less about your feelings, or even that you think I am immature!"

Meg's voice lowered and I heard; "I could care less that you were sucking Peter's face off either.' 'Hey thanks for getting the handcuffs off, Meg.' 'Oh, no problem, Caity.'"

"I was not!"

"And there, that proves my point that you do care about what I think." I could hear the smirk in her voice.

"At least I am not doctor-freaking-love-bird-Phil!"

"Well, considering how you and Peter turned out, I am going to be done with it!" She was back to shouting. "And to think I was going to be friends with you for a while! I am done with you!"

"You didn't..." Caity didn't finish.

"I. Did. Too. And I meant it!" Suddenly the door opened, and Meg stalked out. The way she walked suggested that she was in pain.

"Peter, come." She didn't stop walking.

Peter got up and followed without a sound.

Kyrah's POV

Shaun grabbed my wrist, pulling me out of the bathroom and back into the lecture hall. Some faster song was playing; I didn't recognize it.

"Shaun, you never answered my question," I said, taking a glass of juice or punch or something in my hand, and sniffing it to be sure it wasn't spiked. It was, and I poured it back into the bowl.

"I know."

"Please do so now," I asked, almost questioning. He reached for the ladle; I slapped his hand away. He clenched his jaw, lowered his head, and his brown eyes peered up from under his blond hair.

"The reason I didn't dance with you is because the song was not only your favorite, but a slow song." He paused. "I have taken to understanding that what we... what I... I can... I couldn't ruin our friendship, okay? I'm not particularly okay with that, but if it makes you happy..." I hugged him again, putting every ounce of caring and precision I could into canceling the awkwardness. He was right. I still don't _like_ him like him, but if he does this to make me happy, I am totally fine with it. My phone beeped. I'll check it later.

Meg's POV

I was fuming, and I hurt, but I didn't care anymore. "Trust me on this." I said to Peter as I led him into an interrogation room. I shut the door and went to observation and flipped on both microphones, then the speaker.

"Talk to me." I stated. I sat down on the ground, cross-legged, my arms hanging at my sides.

He seemed to know exactly what I meant. "Well, me and Caity were dancing but being handcuffed was worse." I knew he was blushing, even though I couldn't see it. "I tripped and...Our braces..." He didn't finish.

I closed my eyes, laying out the scene. "Then, after you fell over, she slapped you. Again."

"No. She socked me. Punched me. Whatever the heck you call it." Peter sighed.

"Oh." I heard the door open and close to observation, but I didn't turn and look who it was.

Slade spoke softly. "Meg, I am so sorry."

"It never feels like anybody is." I kept my voice down. "Peter, could you give me a sec. I bet you need to compose your thoughts there." I flipped the microphones and speaker off.

"I know what you mean. I've been there too. Trust me." He wrapped his arms around me.

I shimmied out of his grasp and turned my back to him, letting out the tears so he couldn't see. "No, I don't think that you know exactly what I mean. No one can. Unless they have gone into cardiac arrest, then break a few ribs, all after the guy I care about most doesn't love me back? Love. Is. A. Lie." I sighed again, almost sobbing, but I knew if I did anything else to aggravate my ribs could hurt like...well, hurt like breaking a few ribs...

I heard a sharp intake of breath from Slade. I slipped up and now I had nowhere to go. "No, _you_ don't understand. Having your dad get tested for the seals isn't all that great either. I never know if he's going to come home, or when he dies, I learn that he is going to be on a university slab, waiting for an autopsy."

"Well, let's stick a pin in that. What happened to your head?" I didn't turn around.

"Your friend thought I killed you. Simple as that. She punched me. Pretty hard." I spun, and he was fingering his eyebrow.

"That's my girl, Kyrah." I mumbled really quietly under my breath.

Peter's POV

I never asked for this. I never asked to be brought into the FBI as a hacker. All I knew back then was that I was good with computers. I never asked for my partner to be this... this amazing girl. I never asked for Caity- Caitlin (she hates it when I call her Caity) to have that, that thing with Megan. I never asked for a stupid social, or the cop that cuffed us, or for our braces to get caught. I never asked for any of this.

I leaned forward on the metal table in the interrogation room, twirling the cuffs between my hands. Small flecks of our dried blood littered the hinges. I pushed them away, sickened. She did that trying to get _away_ from _me._ I heard the click meaning the speakers were back on. Megan's voice floated out a sound check, but the two way mirror only reflected my own image.

"Peter, do you have anything else to say?"

"I never asked for this."

"What?" I was seconds away from telling her everything. From pouring my heart out to her. But something stopped me: She was the cause of my current problems. I stood up, strode over to the mirror, guessed where she was standing, and glared.

"Listen, Megan, if you and Caitlin don't get over this trust issue you have, and actually respect the fact that you each have someone that actually likes you, and wants to protect you, then GREAT! If not, I can guarantee that you and Slade won't be together much longer." I could. Slade and I were like brothers now that the Bureau picked us. There was a lot of dead air resonating from the speakers before the silence was broken.

"It's over Peter. Bad timing." The speakers clicked signaling their off. The door unlocked, but didn't open.

Jake's POV****

I was mumbling to myself, playing video games. "Come on; come on, level upppppp... YEAH!" My avatar dashed around the corner just as my phone rang. I hit pause on my controller. "Jake's phone."

"Jake, it's Megan."

"Mm-hmm," I mumbled.

"It- It's Slade. Well, actually, Peter." I put down the controller and walked over to the island in my kitchen, leaning my elbows on it.

"Yeah? Why, did you, uh... Y'know...switch?" I laughed, as if to say 'Just kidding!'

"Ahh, no! Ugh, why would you think...? No, I was... ye- talking with Peter, and he said that... that I have to give up on that trust thing. The one with Caitlin."

"Caitlin...Caitlin...Concussion girl?"

"Yeah, Remember, I told you about the... trust pact thing..."

"Oh...Oh! Yeah, yeah," I pulled a soda from the fridge, petting my German Shepard, Rolf, on the way back to the couch. "So, what about it?"

"I have to give it up, and so does Caity."

"So, sounds like a good thing. I mean, you can't live in fear from men forever. You should give up both, because from what I've heard, Caitlin and the pact aren't worth it."

"Now that you meant- wait, give up BOTH?"

"Yeah, I mean, getting rid of the two worst things..."

"The pact, yeah, but, but Caity? I dunno, we've been friends since even before the... incident." Rolf climbed up on the couch next to me.

"Megan, just how important is Slade to you?" It felt weird having this conversation with a girl, but I felt like I was making the world better or something corny like that.

"..."

"He asked me if I had talked to you the other day."

"..."

"He still calls you 'My Megan'. All the time, like a nickname. A little possessive in my opinion, but..."

"..." The static crackled. "He does?"

"Yeah." I paused, contemplating on continuing. "A lot. He means a lot, but I don't know if friendship is more or less than that." I took a sip from my drink and thought for a moment, biting on the lip of the can. This wasn't getting any less weird.

"Huh. Well, what am I going to do? I can't just say to either one of them, hey, I choose the other, but then again, like you said...we should have no fear against guys. It's just decisions, and I am indecisive. Help me choose?" She asked kind of worriedly into the phone.

"No." I answered plainly.

"Whaa? Why?" She whined.

"And what would happen if I chose for you? If you did something that you didn't want to happen happened, and you can't go back and fix it? Only you can choose for yourself. Seriously, so, you are on your own. Sorry..." The sound was silent save the crackling of the phone.

"Fine." She said curtly.

"So, that sounds okay?"

"Yeah. Bye." She didn't give me time to answer before the phone clicked off.

-Kaylee's POV-

I tried to locate the others, but it was no use. They were all dressed up or something, I mean, I was. I was a vampire. A legit Vampire, not one of those sappy vamps from books.

"...And that was when I decided that toes weren't made for painting." I snapped out of my reverie at Mr. Ellerman's words. He was the Head of the Egyptology Department, and was obviously finishing up a _'compelling_ tale of bravery and truth', as he put it. I thanked him for the tale, and went to find Booth and alert him that someone put a little too much alcohol in Ellerman's punch.

When I reached Booth, he was snapping his cell phone shut.

"Butler, just the person I was looking for!"

"Uh...okay, hey, I think Hodgins spi-"

"We brought Scott back in. Only, I can't leave the social." He gestured around the room. No one was really dancing, save for some wannabe Goth and a crash victim, or something like that.

"And what do you want me to do about that?" I needed to find some of the other Criminology students, and ask them about the murder weapon.

"Go meet him down in interrogation... I think Somers and Parker were here hollering about something like... the weapon, go... go ask questions about that." I rolled my eyes. "I saw that, Butler."

"Fine... What were they dressed as? I can't find them anywhere!"

"A chain gang or something."

"Thanks, I guess I'll be... going now..."

"You do that..." He turned back to the Wonder Woman next to him. I rolled my eyes again, and left, heading towards the lobby, in search of a chain gang.

[***]

The lobby was packed with people; I had to fight my way through. A winged figure brushed past me, and I instantly recognized it as Megan.

"Hey", I tapped her shoulder.

"Kay! Have you seen Slade?"

"Depends, what's he dressed as?"

"Uh... Phantom, last I checked."

"Can't say I have... Where's Caitlin?" Megan looked up, then pointed down the hall.

"Her and Peter were last... in interrogation, I think." I nodded and headed in the direction of Meg's finger.

[***]

I found Caitlin pacing around in one of the rooms, and Peter sitting at the table.

"Aren't you two supposed to be a chain gang?" They looked up.

"What? Oh, these?" Peter pointed to a discarded pair of handcuffs. "Nah that was just... anyway, what do you need?"

"Do you have the murder weapon?" Caitlin nodded and brought out her backpack. She removed an evidence bag with a thin metal rod in it.

"Are you POSITIVE this is the weapon? I need this to be it so I can get the warrant."

"Yeah. It has the same teardrop design at one end. Your perpetrator will more than likely have a red scar in the middle of their palm," She traced her own hand, showing an invisible scar. I set my gaze, having a mental conversation with our eyes. I thought hard. I had already looked at Aaron's hands, weird enough if I had to say it aloud. He hadn't had a scar on his palm... I still had to ask him. It would take to long for a DNA test, but without a confession, we'd need one. Caitlin's eyes flicked to the room next to us. I nodded and left. I made my way into what I now dubbed The CH Room, interrogation room 6's observation area. Sweets was pacing in there, along with Aaron's sister, Alana.

"Can I take this one, Lance?"

"You think you can?" I looked through the two-way glass. Aaron was drumming on the table, staring at the door knob across from him. I nodded, taking a deep breath and walking into room 6.

"Aaron Scott?"

"That's my name."

"We discovered this," I held up the metal rod, "nearby the place Jason Wilkes was found. In order to determine if you used this weapon, I will need to inspect your palms." I tried to keep it smart and clinical. He held his hands up. I took the left one in my hands and looked at the lines. Besides a short 'lifeline', I spotted nothing out of the ordinary. The same story was written on his right. A sudden idea hit me. I excused my self, and walked up to the glass. I nodded my head, giving Lance time to walk over and turn the other light on. We could now see into each others' room. I pointed to Alana. "May I see your palms?" She shrugged and placed them on the glass. A thin, red scar lacerated her right hand. I nodded, letting her put her hands down. I dashed off a text to Booth, and turned back to Aaron.

"Does this mean I'm free to go?"

"Yeah," He stood up, walking towards the glass. He put one arm by my head, and leaned on it, turning his hazel eyes on mine.

"Listen; now that I'm not a murderer... would you like to go out sometime?" I nodded (for the umpteenth time). He smiled and leaned in to kiss me, but stopped when the speakers let out a sound.

"I can still see you!" Lance was glaring, his sister looking dumbstruck. As if on cue, Booth entered the CH room. He read 'Lana her rights and cuffed her.

"I'm sorr-"

"Don't be. I thought it was her, anyway. When Jason called the cops, she was furious. It's okay." He squeezed my hand.


	26. Chapter 25: Spiked

Slade's POV*****

Megan tapped my arm.

"Easton?"

"What?"

"I am done! Done with Caitlin and her stupid pact, and most of all, you!" I blinked.

"What?" Her expression softened, but not by much.

"This this drama; I am giving up. This, thing between us, is OVER!"

"Why?" I felt hurt, betrayed even. So, she was giving up everything? What had happened to the girl I used to know that would stick it out thick and thin?

"I can't put up with it. I am going to stay off romance, for a month at the least!" She sounded proud.

"Why?"

"Slade, I alrea-"

"No."

"What?" It was my turn to be angry.

"You can't Megan. I can make this work!"

"No you-" I stopped her by placing my lips on hers. She went rigid, positioning her hands to push me away, but they soon fell away, weak. I circled my hands around her waist, closing my eyes almost dreamily. I was surprised when she repositioned her arms back around me. It lasted a while, if I do say to myself, before she broke it up. "As much as that is worth staying for, I'm sorry, Easton, but I give up." She didn't try to wrestle out of my grasp; instead she set her head on my chest.

"Megan, take a moment, weigh the Pro's and Con's." She looked up for a moment.

"Pro: You are the sweetest guy I will ever meet. Con: That leads to drama. Pro: You are attractive. Con: That leads to more Drama. Con: I hate drama. I absolutely _hate_ drama."

"Pro: You love me. Pro: I love you. Pro: You are absolutely stunning in that outfit. Pro: I love you. Uh...pro: I don't give a crap about what anybody says. The only con that I can think of is me wondering where on the Earth that my Meg just gives up when she used to stick it out thick and thin. That is _the_ only thing."

"No, no, Slade, you don't get it," She backed up, away from me. "I can't stand all the issues that we have. I can't stand it. It's over. Goodbye, Slade." The last thing I saw were those electric blue eyes, turning away from me.

Caitlin's POV*****

Kaylee left us alone. I almost followed her out. Almost. I stood up, turning to leave, but Peter caught my wrist. His fingers stung against the cuts from the handcuffs. I hissed and he jumped back.

"Caitlin, don't leave, please. Your friend might be crazy or something, but what if that thing, is over. You've both broken it, and don't deny it, I have proof," He smiled a self-satisfied smile. He was right. I picked up the cuffs, brushing off the dried flecks of blood. As close to death as I work, it's still unnerving to see my own blood.

"Peter, I-"

"I'm not done. You have got this off and on thing going, and I can usually follow it, but now, you are free. Make the right choice."

Kyrah's POV

I was with Shaun, talking about stories, especially mine.

"The only thing wrong is that you look too much like Felix. I am just saying." He shrugged. That was how he got through most of his conversations, shrugging.

"How is it a problem?" I asked, honestly.

"Because it makes me think of something..." He moved, then re-settled, and I waited for a second, before he finally moved in. "I never got to finish what I started down in autopsy the first day."

It was a kiss alright, but it was an amazing first kiss. Slow, sweet, with a little bit of caring put into it. Wait, why was I analyzing his kiss? Because I was overwhelmed? Happy? It was almost like, no, don't think of it, yeah. I thought about it. Almost like an explosion of happiness, I saw fire behind my eyes, burning, the loud percussion of my heart. Or maybe it was Shaun's. I pulled back abruptly, gasping in my Pre-panic attack state, mad at myself for ending the perfect kiss that I could never recapture. I would never admit it to anyone, not even Shaun. I shuddered, arms twitching, panicking for no apparent reason. My breath was coming in sharp and shallow.

_It's okay, I'll stay here, Mrs. R._

Gasp, breath in, black out.

_Mommy, my back pack!_

_Okay Sophie, Kyrah, stay here._

I was there. I was in the parking lot. Someone was going to die. I could feel it.

_A car door. A shout. A flash. A loud bang. My skull against wood._

Reality.

Shaun grabbed my arms, pinning them to my side. I breathed out deeply, like a bull before it charges. I struggled, kicking at random, my mind puree. He released me when I scratched his hand with my teeth. I granted myself one millisecond of sanity, taking that chance to medicate.

I yanked out my wallet from my pocket, to pull out a Depakene pill to help with my PTSD. I grabbed a cup of, apparently, spiked punch to down my tablet with.

"You okay?" Shaun wrapped him arms around my back. In my Post-PTSD state, his flesh burned against my shoulders. "Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh." He hushed me, putting his head by my ear. "It's ok-kay. I didn't m-mean to trigger it. I am so-sorr-ry. Please f-forgive me." He backed up while I tried to stop shuddering. We both stood there for a minute, staring at each other. A little awkward, but otherwise, nice to be in each others presence.

"Why?" I drew out the word. It sounded funny.

"You ask that a lot... Why what?"

"Why," I drew out again, "Did you try to kiss me s'long time ago?"

"Uh," He ran his fingers on his head making his hair stand up. It looked funny. "Believe it or not, this guy in my P.E. class was telling us about all the girls he's kissed, and I, uh, felt left out... and you were right there..."

"S'okay. It was just scary... I can't remember why." He dragged me over to one of the chairs.

"Why?"

"Why what, Sha?"

"Why does Nat have blonde hair, brown eyes, and is exactly five-foot-six?"

"'Cause you are." I covered my mouth. He laughed, and then made a serious face.

"Kyrah," He said like my mommy says when she's angry. "Where's that glass you drank out of?" I looked around. I spied it on a table.

"O're d'ere." I pointed so he knows where it is. He got up and got it. He sniffed it.

"Kyrah, this is spiked. How much did you drink?" I held my hands a few inches apart.

"Dis much." He grabbed my arm, pulling me up.

"We have to get you to Ducky or someone. You are wasted. That is bad. VERY bad. Note to your older self, you can't drink too much." I laughed.

"That's silly."

"Now!" He drug me to an 'elly-vader'.

Kaylee's POV*****

"It's almost 10 o'clock," I observed, still holding Aaron's hand. Was it odd, going out on a whim with a fabled convict. Yeah. Was he hot, and actually sweet? Heck yeah.

"Yup, Sherlock." We laughed. We danced a little bit. When we were both equally tired, we sat down and just talked, about this, or that.

"Isn't it a little ironic that you were in federal custody less than an hour ago, and now you're dancing at their dance?"

"Nope!" He grabbed a glass of punch, swigged half of it, and offered the rest to me.

"No! Aaron, you know that's got alcohol in it. Probably the heavy pure stuff!"

"So," He looked at me weird.

"So, you can get really sick!"

"So? I do this all-" He stopped.

"All...?" I prompted.

"Let's not discuss this right now..." His eyes flicked to above my head. Booth was standing there, a half-grin, more-scowl on his face.

"Hello, Mr. Scott," He forced out, Brennan walking up behind him, "Might I _inquire_ as to what you are drinking?" He pulled his best 'I'm a cop, don't deny it' look.

"Punch," Aaron said, popping the 'P' sound.

"Will you admit to a breathalyzer test?"

"No." He looked up at me, eyes wandering somewhere around my eyebrows.

"Then will you at the least, uh, walk this line?" He pointed to a line of duct tape obscuring a cord on the ground. Aaron shrugged.

"Sure," He walked, making a beeline to the end.

"Thank you, Mr. Scott. Remember, though, I am watching you," He moved his 'V for victory' fingers away from his eyes, settling on Aaron's hazel ones. "Always watching." He started to walk away, snapping his head back for a final, "Always watching."

Megan's POV

That was... that was... that was... I can't think. He was worth staying for, I mean, who wouldn't want to? But, for what it's worth, I don't think either of us was ready. I mean, we just sort of fell together. There were rumors that Sweets had set us all up for this. Some say for the fun of it, others for the strong bonds it built. I don't care. If they want us to work together on cases, and be civil, I will. Off the job, it's over. You can't have a forensic criminologist out in the field with her enemy of an agent. You just can't. As a metaphor for our relationship, the dance was over. It was eleven o'clock. I had to get home to sleep. It was a Sunday night, and I had to be back tomorrow morning. Cullen e-mailed, or rather, had Bruick e-mail us about actual lessons. Currently we were sliding by on the quick, learn-as-we-go lessons from our supervisors. Now we were to take at least one day of lessons a week. Fine by me.

I kicked my bag out from under my desk, and went up to the lobby to meet the others and Phil. I took a quick trip to the bathroom to change into a more comfortable outfit. Caitlin stood there, holding hands with Peter, but otherwise ignoring each other. Slade was chatting with Peter, something about an upcoming lacrosse game: Highland versus Desert Ridge. Peter had no idea what Slade was talking about. His eyes caught mine for a second before flicking back to Peter's. I walked over to Phil, who was mapping out his route, old school map and sharpie in hand.

"Thanks for driving us all the time," He looked up, unlit cigar in his mouth.

"You're the only one that appreciates it kid." I smiled, pointed out my house, and moved over to where Booth and Brennan were chatting idly.

"Thanks, Bones, I really needed that," He said sarcastically.

"Booth! You know that- Hello Ms. Hamberlin."

"Hey," I said, "I see you enjoyed the social." I pointed to the geek and the super hero.

"Yeah, hey, Hamberlin, you haven't seen Di Croce, have you? Phil needs her address."

"Uh, no, I don't... Ask Shaun."

"Harris? Why?"

"Last I saw them, they were," I signed kiss, tapping my cheek and lips, "Y'know?"

"Uh, excuse me for a moment," Booth grinned, pulling out his cell phone. Brennan excused herself to the restroom to change into a more comfortable top. I took that as an invitation to eavesdrop on Booth.

"Sweets, they're working, Harris and Di Croce, just like you said they would... I know, two doctorates... why didn't you just pick the best of the High school students? Oh... Oh! I see, well then, bye." He turned around and almost ran into me.

A few minutes later, and I was in the back of our van. I felt like nothing. Caity didn't even care, nor did I want her to. Slade seemed as though he was using me to get to someone. I didn't know who, or maybe it was to show-off to the lacrosse boys. I'm not trying to sound prideful, but I've heard from countless guys that I was pretty. It sounded like a legitimate answer.

I had no one to talk to, except Phil, but he was only the driver. I wasn't going to..."Phil? What can you say about guys?" I rubbed my hands together, regretting saying anything. Now he was bound to find me a boy crazy lunatic.

"Well, they're sorta like girls, 'xcept o' course that they're more held back and show-offs." Which proved my point on the showing off. He played lacrosse; what else did he need to do to make himself...cool?

And why was I talking to Phil about it? I sat in the back in silence until, "Ya know, kid, I eavesdrop on a couple of conversations. What else am I supposed to do? 'Specially his...the tall, brown haired one. Ya know?" He paused before continuing, "It seems like most teens 'ave it tough, but this kid? It seems like he 'as it worse. Maybe all he needs a friend 'ight now." We pulled up to my house.

I whipped out my phone, tempting to text Slade, but thought twice about it. It was almost twelve, and I was exhausted. "Phil-" I started.

"You're welcome, kid. And maybe you should be a friend to everyone." He didn't give me a chance to reply before he sped off, back to collect the rest of them.

I thought about what he said. A friend to everyone? Wasn't I always friendly? I shrugged and walked into my house. My mom was up on her laptop, and when she saw me, she smiled. "You sleep deprived child, get some rest. You can sleep in tomorrow."

"Nice try, mom, I have lessons at the yard." I trudged to the bathroom, brushing my teeth and taking out my lenses. If anything, my contacts dulled my eye color. I stared into the mirror, trying to find at least something that resembled me. I shook the blurry image from my mind, and headed back to my room. It took all of thirty seconds to fall asleep.

_The blistering sun fried my skin cells as I climbed through the sparse desert. The dust did nothing to mask the rays of sunlight beating down on me. I was thirsty. VERY thirsty. After what felt like hours of walking, I finally, and I reiterate, FINALLY found a raging river. The water bubbled menacingly, frothing on it's banks. As parched as I was, I dropped to my knees, cupping my hands into the streaming water. The water was hotter than the air, and it stung my fingers and tongue as I drank, gulping down handful after handful. I made a judgment call, diving into the scorching water. As warm as it was, like an evaporatave cooler, the summer winds cooled me. I relaxed dropping into the water. The current sucked me under, pulling me to where the water met the murky dirt on the floor. I couldn't breathe; the lack of breathable oxygen suffocated me. I closed my eyes one final time before succumbing to the-_

Darkness. I sat up, rubbing my eyes. What had happened?

Shaun's POV

I was pacing around the autopsy tables in the Morgue. Kyrah was laying down on one of them, Cam and Ducky hard at work. I couldn't watch. They were trying to make her be quiet; she was screaming, almost. It was more of loud thrashing and babbling. Palmer, one of the other Pathologists, with about as much knowledge as either of us, with twenty times the experience, tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hey, you better go. You'll see her tomorrow. She'll be okay. Thank God Hodgins didn't use the heavy stuff, right? I mean that could've kille- Phil's up front, waiting for you."

"Thanks, Palmer," I said, tuning to look one last time at Kyrah. She was sitting now, rocking side to side slowly, still yelling. I left, heading to the lobby. Phil waved me over, handing me a marker and a map and told me to mark my house. I did so, walking over to where Peter and Slade were talking. I inserted myself into the conversation, not taking in a word anyone said. I was too distracted. _...That could've kille-_ d her, I finished Jimmy's thought. Killed her. Killed her. Killed her. I remembered why she drank it in the first place. _Stupid PTSD,_ I thought, _I'll find out what's doing this to her. I'll help her get past it._

Peter's POV

Caity wasn't really ignoring me; it was one of those things where you just enjoy each other's company. I was talking to Slade about guy stuff, and the thing that he was trying between Meg, me, him, and Caity. My face was still purple, and I finally understood why he tried. It was Halloween and he had accidentally told Caity he loved her. That part, I didn't understand, but I probably could never think like I was in a panic, and had the same experience at all. People's brains work different. He just rolled with it. Then 'his Meg' had inhaled some spore, and I had to chuckle because it sounded a lot like the Secret Garden and the little Colin dude. But Slade didn't think it was funny. At all.

"So. You kissed her?" I probably emitted waves of shock from my body.

"Well..."He pause, rubbing his hands together. A habit that I noticed both him and Meg had. "What else was I going to do to make her stay with me?"

"Uh, just talk to her?" I flashed frustration, momentarily squeezing Caity's hand. She flinched and I mumbled an apology. She nodded, then turned back to talk to Kaylee, who was holding hands with Aaron.

"She wouldn't listen to me. She just..." He rubbed his hands harder and I wondered if he had ever rubbed the skin off of his fingers. "She always tries to do what she wants to, and never listens to anybody. It's hard to even know what she's thinking."

"Have you told her that?" I thought about the lacrosse game. Would she be there, even though she is giving up? Should I ask her? Then it would seem like Slade had asked me to ask her. "I mean, if you tell her what you really feel, don't you think it helps in the relationships. Just saying."

"Well..." He bit his lip.

"Well?" I asked.

"I dunno... She's to da-" He glanced to Caity and Kaylee who stopped talking "-rn," He covered, "complicated. One minute she's saying she loves me, the next she's running off. I dunno."

"Tell her. No better yet, do something for her." I felt like the king of the world, having people (well, a person) coming to me for advice.

"What?"

"Invite her to your game... then... then... uh..."

"Uh what?" He asked. I thought. What could he do. They weren't going out anymore, so asking to go steady, if people did that anymore, would be worthless. A sudden idea flared inside me.

"Do you still love her?" He looked like I just asked him a _really_ personal question, and technically I had.

"Uh," He rubbed his hands, "Yeah. I still do. She's per-"

"Cut the romantic stuff. Tell her that. Tell her that you still love her, and that's all that matters." Slade stuck out his tongue.

"UGH. Can that get any more... mushy?"

"Do you want Megan back or not?" Before he could answer, Phil walked over to our group.

"Say goodbye, kids, Time to head out." We said goodbye to the remaining employees and boarded his van. Before he dropped Kaylee off first, however, he kindly reminded us that he WILL NOT pick us up the next morning, and to make transportation arrangements OTHER than HIS (yes, he yelled).

Kyrah's POV

"Hey, Kyrah." The voice was loud, banging, as if someone had yelled in my ear through a megaphone. I could tell the lights were on, even though my eyes were closed. The florescent lighting stung my eyelids. Something poked my arm, and I shot up, colliding skulls with my assailant. I fell back onto Dr. Saroyan's couch, blinking away the swimming images in front of my eyes. The bleary image swam forming into an attractive pair of brown eyes staring into mine. "KYRAH!" The voice must have yelled, for how loud it was. The scene reassembled itself in front of me. Shaun. Grabbing his head. Sitting on the couch next to me. Reaching for my hand. I snatched it back.

"Whaa?" I stood up slowly, crossing over to Cam's desk and rifling through it to find some sort of medication.

"Are you... okay?" Shaun walked up behind me, putting his chin on my shoulder. I pulled away, reaching for the trash can. I barely made it in time before whatever I ate last night was no longer digesting inside me. Shaun's hand reached around, pulling my long slightly tangled hair from my face. I wiped my mouth with a tissue and sat up.

"What do you want?" I snapped, regretting using such a sharp tone as my headache set back in.

"I wanted to know how you're feeling."

"I don't even know what happened last night! I woke up here, tired as heck, with a note from Cam on the desk telling me that I can leave if I want to!"

"What's the last thing you remember?" He took my arm, dragging me back to the couch. I turned the light off before sitting down.

"Barg... Bar... Barging into the men's room." He looked defeated, like something he was holding flew away in the breeze.

"Oh," his face fell. "We got lessons to go to... so do ya want to go home, or..."

"What lessons? Wait... Oh! Yeah, I'll go." I stood up shakily, unconsciously grabbing his arm for support. He guided me to the elevator, then down to autopsy.

{oOo}

"Ducky, Dr. S, I think Kyrah's just going to watch this one." Cam brought me some sort of aspirin or something. I eagerly took it.

"Does she remember anything?" Doctor Mallard, Ducky, wheeled a new gurney, body included, into the room.

"No, I don't, thanks for asking," I quipped. Shaun stood in front of me and bluntly answered the question I've been asking for ages.

"You got drunk last night... not on purpose though."

"What?" I whispered, my voice strained.

"You accidentally ingested a small amount of alcohol at the social last night," Cam clarified.

"Well, then, on with the lesson," Ducky said, changing the subject. The victim died of strangulation, as was evident by the broken hyoid and ligature marks on his throat. So far, we had only worked with non-evident poisoning, and a stabbing. Strangulation was different. Two hours later, we were finished with the autopsy. Ducky signed the forms, and turned us loose for lunch.

Megan's POV

I feel like crap. I didn't bother to actually getting all gussied up, I mean, I wasn't actually trying to impress anyone. I tossed on my FBI t-shirt and black jeans. My mom drove me to the lab. I quickly dashed down to my office. I forgot about our lessons, but was quickly reminded when Abby and Hodgins were pacing in my lab, arguing over _Dermestes maculatus_. I cleared my throat and stepped in. They stopped talking to each other, and switched their interest to me.

"Megan!" Abby jumped from her spot on one of the tables, and hugged me.

"Abby!" I copied, masking my mocking tone. Hodgins stood up, and 'fist bumped' me. I took a seat on one of the rolling chairs, and listened up.

"Mass spectroscopy is one of the much needed instruments in the lab," Abby started. Hodgins handed me a photocopied picture from what appeared to be _Forensics for Dummies_. "Did you ever figure out how t-" She was cut short by a sharp rapping on one of the glass doors. Slade stood there in a grey FBI t-shirt, with Dark sweat stains around his neck and arm pits. Ew. Gross. Disgusting. "Oh! It's Haagen Daz kid, wait, Megan, is that _Slade_? Lemme let him in!" Before I could protest, she unlocked the door, allowing Slade and his sweat to enter. "Megan's told me so much about you!" I groaned.

"You talk about me?" He smiled a self satisfied smile.

"Not like tha-"

"Can I talk to you?" Slade cut me off. In the spirit of no one listening to me, he drug me out into the hall. Booth and Tony rounded the corner.

"There you are Easton!"

"How do you do it?" They spoke at the same time.

"Youth... Abby and Jack are in the lab... They wanted to talk to you." They left us alone. Greaaaaat.

"Slade, what do you wa-" His stopped me. With his mouth. I dropped my hands to the sides as his lips wrapped around mine. I kept still, not wanting to give him any ideas. He started slow, coaxing me to join in. When I didn't he picked up my arms, tossing them over his shoulder, eliminating any remaining distance between us. It was at that point that I snapped.

I pulled away, wiping my slightly sweaty hands (from his shirt) on my jeans, glaring at him. "Could you ever just think about someone _other_ than yourself for once, and what _pain_ they go through when you don't think?" I shoved him, even though it hurt. My stupid ribs were slowly healing. Slowly. At a snail's pace. Slower than it would normally take for other people.

"What, Slade? What do you _want_?" I snapped the last words, finally finishing a question before he could kiss me. "How many times do I have to...I don't know, _tell you_?" I fumed.

"The lacrosse game...Do you want to come?" He dragged each word out, like he was regretting each one.

I scoffed. "I am already going, but not because of you, but of course Aiden's in it, so yeah." I walked back into my lab.

"I take it that went well," Hodgins said.

"You could say that... before we continue, Booth, you're agent is mentally injured back in the hall... Where were we?" I looked expectantly at the two forensic criminologists. Abby finished gawking and continued her speech on Mass spectroscopy.

"You insert the test sample in this tray here..."

-X-

I was at home, tired but not being able to sleep. I opened the window, tempted to go outside on the stucco, but then turned and saw my piano. I loved the piano. To either mine or it's death. I sat down on my bench and started to pluck out random notes. Then I thought of my feelings, how they were somewhat kept inside. I started on the middle C and started to play random, harmonic notes. It sounded really good. I pictured a flowing river, colliding with each bank as it twisted and turned down an endless forest.


	27. Chapter 26: What we do best

Slade's POV

I heard music down Megan's street. I didn't even mean to come down this way, but it was the way that my feet took me. It sounded like a piano. As I was passing Megan's house, it came from her window. The fichus tree right next to her window made a perfect leverage to get to the roof. I climb up it, feeling like a monkey. I scraped up my stomach, slithering to the stucco roof. I slowly transferred all my weight to the roof, careful to not slam something and make Meg freak out. I sat right next to the window, listening to the music flow outside.

All the sudden, I felt a sharp pain on the left side of my stomach. My hand flew there and pressed lightly on the pain. I felt warm, sticky liquid start to cling to my hand and shirt. My shirt lifted a little, and I saw a nasty cut running from my hip to the height of my navel. It was where I had scraped up against the tree.

The piano stopped, and Meg's head popped out of the window. "I smell..."

"Hey!" I said as she jumped and her head collided with the top of the window.

"Frickin!" She said as she hopped out of the window. Her eyes narrowed, giving me a death stare. Her right hand was pressed against the top of her head. She spotted where my left hand was and her eyes widened in shock. "Teaches you to climb other people's trees to stalk them. Come on." She held out a hand that was soft, but had a firm grip when I grasped it to climb through the window. Once I was inside, she ran out of the room, in pain.

To the right of her window was a small white washed piano, hand drawn sheet music laid on the stand. The left of the window had a whole corner of artist's stuff, colored pencils, sketch pencils, an easel with a painted canvas. A sketch book was open on the floor, drawings of our team. I flipped through some, finding that a lot of pages were of me. I whipped out my phone and started to take pictures of them. I carefully flipped it back to its original position and looked around the rest of the room. A shelf was on the wall about head height, a lava lamp on top, with other things cluttering it. The door was closed to a walk in closet.

Her dresser by her closet was cluttered with papers and notebooks, mostly filled with fictional characters, but one caught my eye, and I couldn't put it down. It started talking about a river flowing down a forest, but it told it in such a way that I could picture every smoothing rock and pebble that lay in the creek bed. Even the water was an angry, churning, black liquid, grappling at the banks of the river. It steamed and singed everything that it touched.

Her walls depicted an underwater scene, one wall was the surface, dolphins and such, and one was the deep blue; neon colored jellyfish floating on the currents, a great white shark, poised to attack. The opposite wall had receding water into tide pools, with crustaceans and such. The last wall just had a wash of a tropical blue that faintly resembled Meg's eyes. I looked back down at the notebook in my hands, reading on to the next section of the writing. It seemed like I was the drops of water, taking a journey through little brooks, to oceans.

She came in as I was reading, sitting by her bed, propped up by the frame. "Uh, sorry, I was bored..." I stuck the book on her bed and looked at her. She held a bowl of soapy water and a wash-cloth.

"Ehn, I need someone to evaluate it for me, I'm still deciding on whether or not to keep it. Don't take this the wrong way, but I need your shirt off." She set the bowl on the dresser, hands on her hips now.

"Anything for the ladies." I replied, earning a hard slap in the shoulder as I shrugged out of my dark-grey camp shirt.

"You can stop gawking," I laughed, "and do something for it." She gave me her best annoyed look.

* * *

Caitlin's POV:

"Other hand," Zach hovered behind me. I ground my teeth and repositioned the bone on the reverse side. Brennan wasn't at the lab today because she was working a case in another neighborhood. Zach took over teaching me. He was questioning every move, every decision, and criticizing everything I did all the way down to the plethora of 'support-a-cause' bands on my wrist. _Not many people wear Live Strong bands. I'm not sure if 'Save the ta-ta's' is workplace appropriate. That one doesn't have any words on it._

"Thank. You. Doctor. Addy." I forced out. I realigned the skull on its cork ring for the umpteenth time, on _Dr. Addy's_ orders.

"As soon as you rotate the tibia, switch those two vertebrae, and change your top, I believe you are free to adjourn to your lunch break."

"Why my top?"

"The loose knit checker-plaid pattern doesn't agree with those white jeans. Perhaps a t-shirt would work." I rolled my eyes, grabbed my bag, and left the platform, heading out the door without changing my shirt because it looked fine. I hopped on the light rail, only going to the next stop: the local burger joint. Nothing says "I hate my job" like fries and a milkshake. It wasn't crowded, and I could easily pick out the last person I'd want to see on my lunch break. Peter. I took a deep breath, ordered my burger, and took a seat at an empty table, my back to his. I forced down my French fries and cheeseburger, and was halfway done with my coke when _something_ tapped my shoulder. I stiffened, not turning to face it.

"Caitlin."

* * *

Peter's POV

She's sitting there. Eating. I don't know why she's still mad at me. It's like she came to a revelation last night or something. When Phil dropped us off, she didn't even turn back before she hopped from the van, and into her house. Now, after a grueling three hour lesson about internet safety from McGee, all I needed was a soda and a burger. I guess Caity had the same idea. I can't get through to her. One moment I'm king of the world, and the next she's acting like I killed her dog or something. I know she still can't trust guys, but honestly, am I seriously about to kidnap her? I need to break through her facade. She's stopping anyone from getting through.

"Caitlin?" What had possessed me to walk over and tap her shoulder? She kept eating as if nothing happened. It's now or never, Peter. I sat down across from her. She kept looking at her phone, reading a book or something, while she slowly finished her soda. "Caitlin, you won't talk to me. Or any of us. All you do is argue. You can't accept that life handed you this wonderful opportunity to do what you love without extra schooling. You're smarter than anyone I know. If you can't identify what you have, I don't see how you can keep working at the lab with me-us," I corrected. She left one hand resting on the table, and I reached for it. She flinched jerking her hand away. "I won't hurt you. We can be together, if you let me. Until then, enjoy being alone." I picked up my bag, heading back to the lab to drown my frustration in the properties of advanced source codes on html encoded pages.

* * *

Kaylee's POV

"Now, ask me anything."

"What? Oh, uh, do you like skydiving?"

"Totally. I got my license last year and Daisy and I go at least once a month."

"Lie."

"Nope. See, I wasn't breaking eye contact or switching my breathing pattern, let me try." Sweets was attempting to teach me to become the human lie detector. "What is your favorite part of these lessons?" I thought a moment, forced a small smile, and spoke.

"The time spent learning from an impressive role model is the best part of these lessons."

"You suck at lying." I cracked up. If only he knew I was lying this entire time. Hiding the tragic end of my parent's lives from him. He didn't even know about the initial kidnapping. "Looks like it's time for your lunch break. When you get back, we'll work on the post-case forms I like to keep." I nodded, whipping out my phone as it beeped.

_Hey beautiful_

_Hey back_

_R U on lunch?_

_Yeah_

_Want me to come pick you up?_

_yeah_

_See you, babe_

I smiled, stowing away my phone. It was the beginning of November, and it was glorious. The sky was cloudy, but not ominous. A light rain had fallen this morning during the lesson, so everything smelled like those after-the-rain air fresheners. I slipped my jacket on and went to meet Aaron at the bus station. He didn't have his permit yet, sadly.

The Metro bus rolled in front of the FBI offices, and I ran to meet the crowd. Aaron waved through the window, coaxing me to get on. I paid the fare, and entered the dingy bus.

"Hey babe," he pecked me on the lips.

"Hey Aare. Where are we going?"

"Downtown. There's an art show in town and was wondering if you'd like to go see it...?"

"I'd love to." I leaded against him. He was nearly nine months older than me. Nearly a foot taller than me. Nearly a convicted murderer.

Aaron shifted underneath me. He pulled the cord signaling our stop. The bus crawled slowly to a stop. Aaron grabbed my hand, pulling me out to the curb. A few rows of tables were set up, each elaborately decorated with rich fabrics, beaded hangings, paintings, or statues. The first booth had these small glass sculptures. Aaron picked up a delicate white and green glass hummingbird, carefully posed over a real hibiscus flower.

"Like it?"

"Yeah... it's beautiful Aare, but-"

"It's yours." He tucked it into a box, handing a small amount of cash (carefully obscuring the amounts) to the woman. The top of the box had the phrase 'EastonCrafts' stamped on it.

"Hey, Ma'am, you wouldn't happen to have a son called Slade, would you?"

"Yes, why?" She looked concerned, but faked a smile. That was one thing Sweets had actually taught me.

"Oh, I just work with him at the FBI..."

"Oh that's nice! Good to know he has some friends there!" We continued our walk to the next booth. Some blind guy played the violin for spare change. He recieved a full dollar from me. The next few were for a small charter high school, selling some of the impressive pieces from their art classes. I found a cute one of a silhouetted couple kissing, and bought it for Aaron, who folded it and put it in his wallet.

"Thanks," he replaced his hand in mine. We walked and observed the art for another ten minutes, before I had to be back at the lab. See, that's why I like Aaron. He's sweet, filthy rich, apparently, and prompt. He kissed me outside the bus before I returned to the lab.

* * *

Shaun POV

Kyrah was feeling much better, apparently, because she started betting on things she can and can't do better than me.

"I bet you, I can finish of a can of Mountain Dew before you."

"You're on." I slid a can from Autopsy Freezer 107 (we decided to stay at the lab for our lunch break). Once we were both ready I counted back from five and we were off. I just snapped the pop tab forward, not even bending it back. I was almost done when an empty can hit the back of my head.

"I win." I finished the last few drops of soda, and turned back to face her.

"Win what, genius, we didn't bet on anything."

"That would've been underage gambling IN a federal building. Let say... you owe me."

"Owe you what?" She hadn't been very clear.

"I dunno yet. I'll tell you when I think of it." I couldn't argue with that. It was a comfortable silence, as I flipped through my pathology textbook.

"You really don't remember anything do you?"

"Not really. I remember asking you to dance, then you ran off, then I talked to Meg for a while about Slade, I think. Then I went into the bathroom to find you... And that's about it. It's a little fuzzy... I think I remember dancing... maybe... Was that you?" Heck. Yeah.

"Yeah, I think... Do you remember anything related to your PTSD?"

"Maybe... just a little bit... You finally danced with me?" She smiled, almost skeptically.

"Technically."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She slouched in her seat, grabbing the box of red vines from me. I exhaled, leaned back in my spinning chair, and dropped my hands to my scrub-clad legs.

"I, you, uh, we, we kissed, okay?" She looked up, as if the ceiling held the answers to her problems. I expected her to say something like: "We did?" or laugh.

"Well, was it good, or was it awkward?" She asked bluntly.

"You suck at kissing, by the way," I said nonchalantly, trying to get a rise from her. "It's like kissing a plate of Jell-o."

"Do not!"

"And you would know that how?" Kyrah stood up, arms crossed, one redvine hanging from her mouth. She tore it from between her teeth.

"No one, I repeat, no one can , ah, _osculate_ that poorly." I love her vocabulary.

"Wanna bet?"

"Yeah!" With that, she forced her lips on mine. We stood there for a moment, daring each other to prove they can kiss better than the other. She leaned in, sliding her arms up my torso and over my shoulders. She tasted like, well, Mountain Dew and Red Vines. As far as she would remember, this is her first kiss, and I better make it good. She pulled back.

"I win!" we claimed simultaneously.

"Did I kiss well?" She asked seriously.

"Yeah, freaking awesome, if I might add." I backed up, sliding to the floor.

"Then I win." She stepped away. No one had anything else to say on the subject and it was difficult to think after a, well, _mind-blowing_ fight over dominance.

"That was... that was like..." I stammered, trying to find my train of thought.

"Kissing your brother?" She supplied.I gaped like a fish. She wasn't right. She never would be. She would never understand that.

She shrugged, then left to go buy more red vines from the vending machine.

* * *

Megan's POV

It was weird. 24 hours had passed, and it was still on the top of my mind. I sat at my desk in Math, zoning out again. I flicked my pencil in my hand with my thumb and middle finger, catching back into my hand. Why was I thinking about it? Well, what could be weird having a boy that you like in your room, his shirt off and him bleeding? And you having to clean it up? and fix him? He was...muscular. The six pack, pecs, the whole nine yards. If he did get a scar, it would match mine. I was in a biking accident a while ago. A car apparently didn't see me coming, thank goodness that she was going slow. The grill of a black SUV had a different grill. I was scraped up pretty bad. Blood everywhere. But then again, I scarred easily.

The bell rang, and I picked up my stuff, shoved it into my bookbag and walked down the stairs outside. Slowly. My ribs were still healing, of course, and I was in a lot of pain recently. I lived less than a half mile away, and started into the parking lot. Slade walked beside me and started talking to me, but I quickly zoned out. I still thought about him being over. In my room. I had no idea in the universe why. Seriously, no idea. It was weird. I tried to think about other things, anything else. I was looking at Slade's face, telling me some story about today, and I couldn't. All I got were the words, "Jake" "girl," and "friend".

"Please. Help me not think about this." I told him, him probably not knowing what I was talking about.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked with a quizzical look. I scrunched up my face, kind of mad and disappointed.

"A whole bunch of stuff. That is making miss lessons in Math and Science, and not to mention all my other classes. Anything you know about that?" I glared into his eyes, not really seeing any color, but hating him for the trance that I was in.

"Stuff? Is this about yesterday...and..." He lifted up his shirt a little, showing a white gauze patch taped to his oblique.

"I guess. It's an omen. Look." I lifted up my shirt on the same side, showing a jagged scar.

* * *

Slade POV

She lifted up her shirt a bit, showing a flat, tan stomach. A jagged scar was right above her hip, an angry purple.

"Let me guess. You tripped." I rolled my eyes.

She laughed, like I was a stand up comedian. Then cut it off curtly. "No. Biking accident. Stupid lady didn't see me. Apparently. I was wearing a bright orange t-shirt. How couldn't you see it?" She threw her hands up, talking with her hands without saying anything in ASL.

"Hmmm. I don't know. Maybe cuz you blend in with the heat?" I tried to sound like I was giving her a compliment. Only because I was.

"No. Just no. Das was blued." She sounded like she was saying.

"Blued?" I asked.

"Stupid, dumb. Whatever you want to call it." She rolled her eyes. "I call it blued." She stopped, bounced onto her toes, and put her face in mine. I returned the favor without touching her; she hated it when I kissed her 'without permission'. She dipped a little, and then shot back up, meeting my lips. Oh, she was special. She pulled back abruptly, before I could return the favor. She started walking backwards, trying to run away. I chased after her down the small road that set the school's perimeter. She sprinted away, bounding with long strides. I stopped, and started walking a normal pace again. Meg totally turned around too fast, tripping over her own feet. She started laughing, hard.

I caught up to her, and tears were streaming down her face. "Are you okay?" I asked, leaning over her.

"No." She choked out. I knew her chest was hurting her. "My...head...and...torso...hurts..." She was still cracking up. I stood there, waiting for her to get up. Finally, she reached out a hand to pull her up. I threw it over my shoulder and picked her up.

She stopped laughing and looked up into my face. "Put me down, please." She wheezed. I set her down, and she bounced back up on her toes again. I followed her and after a while, she turned around. "So, I take it that you are coming to my house then?"

"Uh...sure, why not?" I shrugged. Her house smelled amazing, like chocolate chip cookies, straight out of the oven.

"Ha. You could try the cookies I made yesterday. Except I burnt them a little bit..." She put a finger to her chin.

"Chocolate chip." I simply stated. "I smelled them yesterday. I thought that was what your house smelled like all the time." I frowned.

"Nope." She hopped on the metal fence, swinging a leg over. "I wish it was. After you left, I was staring at them forever. I almost forgot to take them out." She swung the other leg over.

"Muzzy!" She called. "I want you to meet someone!"

A few seconds later, a silver blur came up to her, slamming into her knees. She didn't fall over.

"I've learned to become immune to it." She leaned over and patted a weimereiner. "Go get him!" She pointed at me.

The dog slowly came over to me. She growled for a second, glaring at me. "Oh, Muse. He's okay. Look." She walked over to me and put a hand on my arm. Muzzy started wagging her tail, approaching me and staring at me. I reached out a hand and petted the dog. It turned tail and followed Meg. Side by side. I followed after, walking along the pavers. She slid open a glass door, Muzzy stopping and waiting by the door.

* * *

Caitlin's POV

I left a tip on the table, then went to go meet the 11:30 bus. Peter... what was he getting at? I leaned my head on the smudged glass, pondering. Why don't I trust him..? They weren't about to kidnap us again. I got a sudden sense of Déjà Vu; I've had this conversation with my self hundreds of times. He was nice, yeah, and pretty darn attractive. _Blonde hair, striking blue eyes, tall, lean yet muscular, freaking awesome when he's wearing those headphones from the cyber center_, the list could go on. It felt as if the FBI and NCIS had just thrust us together. Megan had Easton. I smirked, thinking about their constant off and on thing. Kyrah and Shaun... well, they were a completely different story themselves. Then Peter and I... I pulled out my phone.

_Still up for that second chance?_

_Are you sure?_

_?_

_Do you really want to give me another shot?_

_No, I need you to give me a second try._

_Okay... _

I didn't reply to that... waiting. Less than a minute later, his next message came.

_Caitlin Somers, will you go out with me?_

_No. _I laughed.

_What?_

_Yes._

_Yes?_

_YES! Peter, I will go out with you!_

We all need second chances here, and I hope everyone welcomes that. The bus slowed, and I exited, taking the concrete steps two at a time. I skidded to the elevator, intending to go down to cyber center. The silver doors parted. I stepped in, next to Booth and Gibbs. I greeted them, and pushed the button to the basement. Gibbs leaned around me, hitting the emergency elevator break.

"Somers, we have happened across a once in a lifetime experience. One of the Criminology High students has been accepted to travel to the Maluku islands to study remains. That student has been you," Booth said officially.

"Just me?" I asked, shifting uncomfortably.

"Doctor Brennan and Ms. Daisy Wick will be accompanying you," Gibbs said in a very un-Gibbs like tone. He unstopped the elevator, rerouting it to the second floor.

"Where are w-?"

"Tempe's office," Booth said. "Not to mention that you can't have any contact with the others. At all. Especially in Maluku. Anybody would trace the contact back to us." He added, walking forward as the doors opened.

* * *

Shaun's POV

She swung her dark blonde around the corner, and into the hall. I gathered myself off the floor, and shakily walked to the restroom. I locked the door behind me, not wanting to be disturbed. I fumbled around in my pockets for my lighter. Igniting it, I slid it over the backs of my hands. It hurt, as always. I watched my pale skin redden, then darken. More than once, I pulled back with an inexperience 'Sahhhh!' It had been almost three months since I last pulled the lighter on myself. Less than two minutes later, I dropped the sleek silver lighter on the tile, and ran my hands under some cool water. In my agony, I had forgotten what caused it. I rose to meet my own eyes in the mirror. My blond hair hung loosely around my head. My brown eyes reflected no emotion, the gold flecks gone from my irises, replaced with tears fighting to break free. I wasn't insanely attractive, far from it, actually. I dropped back to the ground. _Kyrah_. The name sounded distant as I whispered it. _Like kissing your brother._ No. It wasn't. If only she would see that.

Someone jiggled the knob in the door, but it was, of course, locked.

"Hello? Is someone in here?" Kyrah. Why wasn't I surprised?

"I don't want to talk to you right now." I straightened my hair. I have a habit of doing that around her, ever since I figured out she hated it all messed up.

"You don't have to talk, just listen." I picked up my lighter, tracing the serpent decoration on it. I clicked it, watching the flame dance as I breathed. "Shaun, why do you do this?"

"I-I don't know." My voice was loud in the echo-y restroom. "It, it helps me forget."

"Can I come in?"

"No. Not right now. Tell Doctor Mallard I'll be there in ten."

"Okay... Do, do you want anything?"

"No." I got up, wetting down a wad of paper towels and rolling my hands in it. I massaged the wet paper on my aching skin, rolling bits of dead skin off it. "I'll be out soon..."

"Are you sure you're okay? You sound... hurt." Little did she know how right she was.

"I'km," I coughed, choking back the tears, "I'm Fine."

"Shaun, you sound like you got cut hard or something. Are you seriously okay?"

"No," I said truthfully for once. "I'll never be."

"Can I come in?"

"NO!" I shouted, then lowered my voice. "I'm sorry, it's just, no, I don't want to talk about it." I heard her lean on the door.

"Shaun, I'm here. You can go to Sweets, if you want, but I'm here. Friend to friend." Her words killed me. I groaned and slid back down the door. I chucked my lighter at the far wall. The casing broke off, revealing the small fuel chamber and inner mechanisms. "What was that?"

"Nothing... I'm coming out... Will you, uh, meet me in the lounge? I-I need to talk."

"Okay, meet you there." I picked up the lighter pieces, stowing them in one of the pockets on my scrub pants. I unlocked the door, and slowly pushed it open.

* * *

Kaylee's POV

I swung into Lance's office, a wide grin on my face.

"Someone had a good lunch... Lemme guess, boyfriend?"

"Oh yeah!" I said, plopping myself on the client's couch. "So, post case files?" Sweets handed me a packet.

"As a trainee, after each case, we have just a few questions, like a test. Just, original evidence, original suspects, victim, cause of death, time of death, alibis, and actual murderer, and means. Not much, just take a few moments..." He rambled on, handing me a pen and clipboard to write on.

I started to fill out my information at the top: Name, title, employee ID, stuff like that, when Lance interrupted me.

"What's he like?"

"Hm?" I popped my head up. "Oh, Aaron."

"That wouldn't happen to be the same Aaron you're going to write on that line, is it?" He pointed to the suspect line.

"He... might be," I felt slightly annoyed, and returned to my paperwork.

"His he okay? During our initial Psychological Evaluation, I found him to be abusive and not attentive."

"Well, you were wrong. He's really nice. He bought me a glass hummingbird at an art show."

"That's interesting. Did you tell him you wanted the hummingbird?"

"No, wait, yes-ish, he asked if I liked it, and I told him it's beautiful, and he pulled out a couple dollars and bought it."

"That's interesting. Hummingbirds can represent the incapability to commit to a relationship."

"Lance! How can you... How would Aaron know that?"

"It's not what he knows, it's what he chose. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but it will when you start taking psych 101."

"Psych 101?" I moved to the next line, simplifying the case.

"College Psychology course. One that you may want to take your junior year." I quickly shoved Aaron's name in the next blank.

"What?"

"Cullen didn't brief you?"

"Apparently not." I thought back to Ducky's ME report.

"Well, your are in your freshman year in high school, correct?" I nodded. "As part of the Criminology high project, you have the ability to take college courses throughout the program. In the end, as a senior, you would be equal to a... sophomore in college, give or take." He tapped the clipboard, a silent reminder that if I don't finish, I'll never pass.

"Cool... Who was the official arresting officer again?"

"Seeley Booth. So, as I was saying, I suggest taking everything Aaron does for you with a grain of salt. As your work psychologist, I caution you from potential heartbreak." That meant a lot, coming from Sweets.

"Thanks Lance. And, so the official case and trial will be presented when exactly?"

* * *

Megan's POV

I was in one of my moods. I didn't feel loved, even though I had Slade. I felt like it wouldn't matter. I couldn't grasp the meaning of life. I washed my hands in the sink, not really feeling the water running over my hands, until Slade placed his under, and retaliated.

"Geez, Meg, that is burning!" He threw the handle to cold. I felt the cold kick in.

"Sorry, guess I wasn't really paying attention." I shook my head, hoping the feeling would clear.

* * *

Slade's POV

I got home, feeling happier than usual. I dropped my bookbag on the stairs, walking straight into the kitchen. There was an opened envelope from the Seals, the letter inside. "Hon, you need to read that." My mom said in momotone, no expression in her voice. I picked it up and returned to the stairs, picking up my book bag as I skipped up steps. I trudged to my room.

After throwing my bag on my bed, and kicking off my shoes and socks, I cautiously opened the letter. A pit grew in my stomach. I knew it was about dad, and it couldn't be good.

I skimmed through the letter, not believing anything it said. There were phrases that battled for attention; "...Sergeant James Easton has been...", "...called back...", "...another round of testing...", "...maybe bits of radioactivity..." I backed up, hitting the wall and sliding down. I sat there, my back on the wall, my elbows on my knees. "Oh, gosh." Tears sprung up to my eyes.

I snapped back to reality, pulling out my phone and called the only person I could talk to right about this.

Five minutes later, and Megan was in my kitchen, making lemon bars from scratch. If anybody could cook, it was Meg.

"Why? He's done enough for the Seals. Why does he have to kill himself for this?" I rested my head in my hands, sitting on a bar stool, staring at the granite countertop.

"I don't know your dad, but from what I can tell, you are a lot like him." She paused. "Where's your flour?"

"In the cupboard by the fridge. Whadda do you mean?"

"I mean that you both are determined. You won't stop until you have me, and he won't stop until he knows that he helped out the country. There is just something about you, that I know your dad is so much like you. I have a feeling that we would get along. You have to know that people all think differently. What I know isn't the same as what you know. I have felt different feelings that you have. It just means that maybe in his gut, he knows that this is right. Try to see it from his perspective. It will amaze you at what you find. Lemon juice?" She bit her lip, looking at me with her blonde bangs falling into her face.

"In the fridge." I looked at what looked like airbrushed flour on her face. Only Megan could make a mess while making something simple. I chuckled a little. "You have a little flour on your face. But, really, how would you know that I have felt different feelings than you have? Wait a sec, that was a dumb question, but I still don't understand..." I sighed, feeling really stupid.

"Well, for one, I don't have a father in the military, and two, you have never been kidnapped. Yes, we might both be scared, but it was a different kind of scared. And the fact that we are both different, you are a male, me female. Think with that smart brain of yours. You'll understand in time. Just know that." She stirred with a wooden spoon, placing the batter into the pan. She stuck that pan into the oven, getting the hot-pad stuck underneath the pan. She yanked it out, slamming her hand onto the element. She shut the oven and stuck her hand under the faucet.

"Are you okay?" I walked around the counter, standing behind her.

"Yeah. I am fine." She strained out. She turned the water off, pulling back her hands into her chest. They were blistered from spacing out and washing her hands with boiling hot water. Her hands were like her point of injury. Meg had beaten the crap out of a punching bag, not to mention her hands, cut them open from slipping on asphalt. She was so injury-prone. Then she blistered them under the water. And _then_ just now, on the 400 degree element. I felt so bad for her. Without hands, you could hardly do anything. "Now you got to turn on the timer for 15 minutes." She turned around, holding her own hand.

* * *

Caitlin's POV

To be perfectly honest, I'm terrified. Booth and Gibbs dragged me into Doctor B's office. My mom was there, sitting on one of the couches. Brennan was seated behind her desk. Daisy Wick, I had met her during one of my lessons, stood behind her mentor. The adults started talking, but I didn't register any of it. I couldn't grasp any of it. I couldn't even get that chance to talk to Peter. It seemed like my life was falling apart.

"...Selected to go with Doctor Brennan to Maluku, Indonesia." I snapped my self from my stupor. The whole point of this meeting wasn't to convince me to go to Indonesia, it was to tell me I'm leaving.

"No," I said quietly.

"Honey," My mom said nervously, leaning over to me. "It's been decided. This is a wonderful opportunity, and it's only for a year."

"A YEAR!" I yell-whispered.

"Don't argue. You're going. Next week, Phil will pick you up, along with Doctor Brennan and Miss Wick."

"Mooooooooom!" I whined.

"Enough." I grumbled a 'fine' and turned back to the group.

"Where's the paperwork?"

* * *

Peter's POV:

I could scream for joy. In fact, I did. I spun around in my chair, tangling the headphone cord around me. I let out a whoop of success, causing McGee to lean over from his desk.

"Did you find that line in the coding?"

"No it's just... I'm back with my girlfriend." It felt amazing to call her my girlfriend. Finally after all these months she's saying yes. As if nothing could go any better, my computer pinged. It found the code. "Hey, McGee, I found it... can I take a break?"

"Sure kid." I flew from my desk and to the elevator. The doors couldn't part fast enough. I ran, falling short of the forensics platform. It was deserted. Except for one of the interns, Zach, if I remember.

"Hey!" I yelled. Zach-if-I-remember turned around slowly, still writing on his clipboard. "Where's Caity?"

"She, Doctor Brennan, and Daisy are in Doctor Brennan's office." He waved his pen across the room without looking up. I thanked him, and ran into the hall. All of the aforementioned people were in there, along with someone who may have been Caitlin's mom, Booth, and Gibbs. Bruick walked in behind me. Still fueled with adrenalin, I ran over to Caitlin and threw my arms around her. I was still taller than her, only by a bit, though.

"So you said yes?" I felt her shift her jaw, no doubt to bite her lip.

"Until this..."

"What is this?" I muttered apprehensively. She pulled away, sliding her arm down mine to grasp my hands.

"Everyone... Can you please give me a moment in the hall?" Gibbs nodded, almost smirking. I noticed Bruick texting. Her mom glared. Booth read Bruick's text over his shoulder. Daisy Wick talked in a low voice to Doctor Brennan. "What are you waiting for?" I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. My arm was yanked, pulling me from the room.

"Caity, I-"

"Peter, we can't 'go out' anymore."

"But, but, you just tex-"

"The FBI is sending me to Indonesia for a year," She said as bluntly as possible. The one thread that was holding together my life, the one thing that kept me from going insane from staring at a computer monitor; snapped. I did the only sensible thing someone in my position would do. I kissed her. It wasn't any of that 'quick peck' crap either. This was toe curling, goosebump raising, pure love. Only she didn't reciprocate to my level. She pulled back. "Peter I'm sorry," her voice faltered as she spoke. I closed my eyes, nodding slowly.

"Okay. Fine. I forgive you." Her head was settled into the crook of my neck. When she spoke, her voice was muffled.

"I'm sorry," she muttered endlessly. Until the tears started. She broke down. I moved us to the couch in the lounge. She sobbed into my shirt. She's cried one two many times, I believe. I lifted her head slowly.

"I'll wait for you." This was my second chance, and I don't want it ruined. She hugged me tighter, not sobbing anymore, and actually smiling. She released me, wiped her eyes.

"There's the silver lining I was looking for."

* * *

Kyrah's POV

Something I said? Something I did? I tangled my fingers in the hair on the crown of my head in frustration. Heck, I don't remember half the things I do, let alone the things I say. A light rain tapped on the skylight windows above me. The sky was a dismal grey. I felt someone settle on the sofa next to me. I didn't even have to look to know it was Shaun. I sat up, immediately grasping his right hand. Being a 'southpaw', all of his injuries were directed to his right. The raw, blistered, flesh was warm against my frigid hands.

"Kyrah," He said, his voice strained, as if fighting a smile or a sob, "Your hands are freezing." I smiled a little, looking at my feet.

"Shaun, whatever I did-"

"Said... What you said," he corrected cautiously.

"What I said. I'm not exactly sure what I _did_ say... Talk to me?"

"It's it's nothing, really..."

"Shaun, It's been forever since you last... well, I did something wrong."

"It's just, Kyrah, I like you a lot. More than you know... I can't stop thinking about you. You were... in my... dream... last night..." Apprehension, embarrassment.

"I was?"

"Well, You were just there... I, well, It shouldn't. We were on Wipeout, and Wolverine was there... Nevermind."

"Thanks."

"You... are... welcome?"

"Thanks for trusting. You told me that... dream... and didn't hold back. Unlike the Shaun I know." He hung his arm from his neck, a gesture we both do, didn't do before we met each other, and don't know who started it.

"Am I like your brother?"

"I don't have a broth-"

"_Like _a brother." That's what he was hung up about. _Like kissing your brother_.

"Oh, yeah. We're cool," his face fell. "Oh, Shaun, I didn't mean... Not like..." I pulled him into a hug. He was several inches taller than me, at least 5'6'', and took advantage of that by laying his head on mine.

"When I go home, I don't go home to mom and dad. Or Grandma. Or another family member. I go home to the Phoenix NotAlone group for Orphaned Children. My family is Miss Bobbi and Dr. Blujae. They run the place."

"Shaaauuuun," I whined, "Don't make me cry!" I released him.

"Hey, we don't write our own history, only our future."

"Who said that?"

"I did. Like it?" I changed the subject.

"I like you too... Just give me a while to collect my feelings."

"Fair trade."

"You still owe me one."

* * *

Kaylee's POV

_And then there were six,_ I thought as the airplane tracker on Peter's laptop blinked it's finish. We were gathered in the cyber crimes lab tracking Caity's airplane as it touched down in India before a final flight to Maluku. We waited in silence for five minutes. Peter's phone began to mumble 'Hey There Delilah' from his bag. He pulled it out, and we instinctively left. We knew it was Caitlin on the other end.

Lance was to do simple psychological evaluations on us, as a part of the criminology high study; to see if forensics was having any adverse affects on us. He himself declined, though, because it's been a rough week on all of us. Christmas was coming up in a few weeks. Finals in school, and at Crim. High. Aaron and I were going steady, although on numerous occasions he attempted to get me to quit the FBI, almost making me sever our relationship. I leaned over the balcony that overlooked the forensics platform. Kyrah and Shaun were in the path lab down the hall, studying. Megan was cataloging maggots or something like that. Slade was talking with Lance about case files. Peter was downstairs, no doubt talking to Caity still. The overall atmosphere was quiet. Until Booth's announcement, that is. He whistled loudly as I walked down the steps and onto the platform. Everyone had gathered, except Peter.

"Sweets has reviewed an analysis of you six. He tells me that This Program has had an affect on you guys. It has toughened you, and sometimes not for the better. For now, no field work. Now I gotta case I gotta go work, and Easton?"

"Hm?"

"You need to come along. Grab your gear." The agents walked out of the lab. I took that moment to speak.

"You hear them, we got a case! We should get ready, right?" After some nods, the melancholy faces broke out in grins and we set back into what we all do best: the psychologist, the pathologists, the criminologist, the agent, and the hacker.

* * *

**So... That's it. It's over. Fin. The End. It's been great to write this, and with heavy editing, we were able to move it from fanfiction to a novel. If/When (Depends on the reviews and other motivation) we write a sequel, it will more than likely be on fictionpress. Reviews are greatly encouraged. Especially since this is the last chapter. What to say? Well, an honest opinion always is welcome, as is maybe something you saw to much of, something you didn't see enough of, favorite character, least favorite character, who you would say the main character is( only one), favorite scene, least favorite, something we could've left out, something you would've liked to see, any MAJOR errors, etc.**

**So please, let us know! **

**Until next time,**

**The Criminology High Team**


	28. Fighting for Reviews

For those who have finished Criminology High: Freshman Year, or who still have this on alerts, or those who just finished this story, we ARE writing a sequel! But, for balance and interaction with the audience, we'd like to hear from you! We have a few questions we'd really appreciate if you'd answer in a review or private message. We have successfully re-written this as a novel, which may be on your bookshelf at a later date. So, please take a moment and tell us a little about how you liked the story, a few things you'd like to see, things you wish you didn't, and maybe even a few would you rather!

1. All time favorite character:

time favorite student:

?

4. Least favorite character:

5. Why?

6. Favorite CANON pairing:

7. Why?

8. Favorite non-canon pairing:

9. Why?

10. Favorite Megan moment:

11. Favorite Kyrah moment:

12: Favorite Caitlin moment:

13: Favorite Kaylee moment:

14: Favorite Slade moment:

15: Favorite Shaun moment:

16: Favorite Peter moment:

17. Favorite Aaron moment:

18:Favorite chapter:

19. Why?

20. I think there should be a _ scene, because:

21: I think you should get rid of the whole "_" part, because:

22. This character would be more interesting if they_.

23. In the sequel, I'd like to see_:

24. _ is really bothering me because:

25. What is your opinion on all the romance in this story?

26. Would you write fanfiction of the official novel?

27. Would you buy the novel (regardless of price)?

28: _ is really confusing me.

29. Do you think Caitlin deserved to go to Maluku, and why?

30. What is your age, gender, and country of origin (little demographic research(: no worries)

31. My honest opinion on the dynamics between the characters and the things that happened to them is:

32: What do you think will happen to the characters when the graduate from the Crim High system? How will their personalities change? What kind of lifestyles will they live?

So, please, answer us! The quality of the sequel depends on it!

Thank you for reading our story!

-The Crim High Team


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